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More than One Blast Killed Miners in Ulyanovskaya – Officials
Four or five blasts rocked the Ulyanovskaya mine in Kemerovo Region, according to a federal industrial regulator which is probing the incident in the mine which killed 108 miners. Earlier reports said there was only one explosion in the pit.
There were four or five methane explosions in the mine with 6-second intervals, one of the explosions triggering all others, the Rostekhnadzor industrial safety watchdog said on Tuesday. “Experts are now trying to find out which of the explosions was the first one,” the agency’s deputy head Nikolay Kutyin said, adding that final results will be issued after experts have examined the flooded roadway.
The investigation team does not have a main theory of the incident, Mr. Kutyin noted. Rostekhnadzor said on Monday an early investigation found flagrant breeches of safety rules at the mine. The violations mainly concern the methane control system, according to media reports.
Rostekhnadzor hopes to finish the probe in two or three weeks. Meanwhile, Yuzhkuzbassugol, owner of Ulyanovskaya, said early conclusions will be available after water has been pumped out from the pit, which will take between two and three days.
The federal industrial safety agency sent its inspectors to all coal producers throughout Russia on Tuesday after a week-long inspection of mines in Kuzbass halted production in 20 of 60 pits in the area.
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