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3 December, 2007
Thirteen days after an explosion inside an eastern Ukrainian coal mine killed 101 workers, a second methane blast at privately-held Zasyadko’s mine near Donetsk sent 44 miners to the hospital. This second explosion happened at 05h00 on Saturday, 1 December.
And then on Sunday, 2 December, a third blast inside the stricken mine killed five rescue workers. Thirty-three rescue workers and 33 other miners were injured in this third blast. Many of the hospitalised are in serious condition.
The explosions follow the worst Ukrainian coal disaster in recent years. The death count from the 18 November explosion, deep inside several shafts of Zasyadko’s Donbass region mine, reached 101 on 29 November, when a worker died in a Donetsk hospital. Ten miners remain unaccounted for from that methane explosion, which occurred 1,000 metres below ground. Another 40 miners remain hospitalised.
The ICEM had sent its condolences to both the Ukrainian Coal Industry Workers’ Union (PRUP) and the Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine.
The cause of the 18 November explosion is believed to be defect electrical equipment. Reportedly, sensors did not show a build-up of methane gas. The mine was privatised by state-run Donetskugol and assets transferred to prominent Ukrainian politician Efim Zvyagilsky. Igor Gryaznov serves as director of the enterprise. It yields 10,000 tons per day, and is one of Ukraine’s larger collieries.
The Zasyadjo mine has a history of tragedies. One worker died in February 2007, while in September 2006, 13 miners were killed due to a methane blast. In 2002, 20 miners were killed in the same manner, a tragedy which brought criminal charges to six managers of the mine for violation of safety procedures. Other tragedies happened at Zasyadjo in 2001, when 55 lives were lost, and in 1999, when 50 miners perished.
Also in Ukraine, on 25 November, two miners were killed and one seriously injured when a rock slide caused a shaft to collapse. That occurred at the Arbis coal mine, also eastern Ukraine, but in the Lugansk region. The same day, a fire occurred inside a shaft in the Belorechenskaya mine in the same region. There were no fatalities there.