MOSCOW: Russia’s emergency ministry said all 128 miners were evacuated from a Siberian coal mine on Sunday after fire sensors were turned on, just weeks after an explosion at a mine in the same region killed 51 people.
SUEK Coal Company, which owns the Ruban mine in Russia’s Kemerovo region, said the sensor had detected an increase in carbon monoxide emissions, caused by the heating of the seam, but that it had not ignited and there was no fire. Wasn’t.
“All 128 people surfaced, with no casualties,” the emergency situation ministry said in a statement.
Russian news agencies earlier reported the fire at the Ruban mine on Sunday, which said 128 to 139 miners were underground at the time, citing the mine’s administration and emergency services.
SUEK said that the work was stopped in compliance with the protocol after the sensor was turned off. It said the ventilation system was working and the gas level was normal.
TASS cited the prosecutor’s office as saying that an investigation was launched into why the sensors at the mine were triggered.
The co-owner of the Listvyaznaya mine in Kemerovo, where an explosion killed 51 people in November, was detained on Wednesday. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the management of falsifying methane data at the mine.
In 2007, the area was the site of the worst mining accident since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when an explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine claimed more than 100 lives. In 2010, more than 90 people were killed in explosions at the region’s Raspadskaya mine.
by Alexander Marrow
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