Fire breaks out at Siberian mine, 43 evacuated

The mine’s operations were suspended

KEMEROVO, August 18. /TASS/. A fire broke out on Saturday night at the Gramoteyevskaya mine in Siberia’s coal-rich Kuzbass region, prompting the evacuation of 43 miners, a spokesperson for the regional office of the Russian emergencies ministry told TASS.

"It was reported that a belt-type conveyor caught fire in a mine face at the depth of 200 meters. The fire was put out at 1:10 local time [21:10, Saturday, Moscow time]. There were 48 people in the mine at the moment of the ignition. 43 people evacuated on their own, five stayed to ensure the work of the mine’s sustainment systems. No one was injured," the spokesperson said.

The mine’s operations were suspended in the wake of the incident, a local administration official told TASS.

According to the Siberian branch of Rostekhnadzor, the supervisory body of the Government of Russia on technological issues, several incidents were reported at the mine in past years, including last May’s evacuation due to smoke.

The Gramoteyevskaya coalmine in the Belovsky district of the Kemerovo region opened in 1930 and is one of the region’s biggest coal-mining facilities. It was part of the Evraz group until October 2013, when it was sold to UK-based Lehram.