Mine fire in Kemerovo region: more than 40 people injured | News from Germany about Russia | Dw

At least one person died and more than 40 were injured in a fire on Thursday, November 25, at the Listvyazhnaya coal mine in the town of Belovo, Kemerovo Region. At the ambulance station in Belovo, it was reported that currently five victims are in serious condition, another 36 are in a state of moderate severity. All of them were poisoned by combustion products. In turn, the Kuzbass Center for Disaster Medicine said that 43 victims were delivered to the Kuzbass Clinical Center for Health Protection of miners: two were in serious condition, another 41 were in a state of mild and moderate severity.

According to updated data, the fire started after the ignition of coal dust in the ventilation drift at a depth of 250 meters, after which the smoke spread through the ventilation throughout the mine, where, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there were 285 people. The Listvyazhnaya administration reported that 237 miners were evacuated, 48 people remain in the mine, but they “are independently rising to the surface.”

In connection with this incident, the Office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kemerovo Region opened a criminal case under the article “violation of the industrial safety requirements of hazardous production facilities, resulting in the death of a person by negligence.”

The Listvyazhnaya mine has been owned by the SDS-Ugol holding since 2011. According to data from open sources, accidents occurred on it twice: on January 24, 1981 – an explosion of methane in the accumulating drift (five people died) and on October 28, 2004 – an explosion of a methane-air mixture (13 people died).

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