Mining accident in Donetsk

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36 DEAD IN UKRAINE MINE BLAST
By MARINA SYSOYEVA Associated Press Writer

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) . An underground methane and coal dust explosion killed 36 miners, injured 44 and left more than a dozen missing in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, the Emergency Situations Ministry said . the most serious accident this year in the country's hazardous coal mines.

The morning blast came as more than 250 miners were working underground at the Zasiadko mine in the coal-rich Donetsk region, authorities said.

``This is a tragedy. We understand once again that that we must re-equip our coal industry both technically and technologically to bring it to a proper level. It is one of the state's priorities,'' Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Semynozhenko lamented the deteriorated state of Ukraine's coal industry, considered among the world's most unsafe, and pledged to help the families of the dead and wounded.

Most of the miners were brought to the surface, where 22 were hospitalized, at least four of them in grave condition. Twenty-two others were injured only slightly.

Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry said at least 14 miners were missing, but noted that its figures were preliminary. More than 50 rescue teams were working in the mine, battling a continuing fire, officials said. One miner who escaped the accident unharmed described seeing ``piles of bodies'' while making his way to the surface.

Only 10 bodies had been brought to the surface by Sunday night and reports from the various rescue teams made compiling an exact casualty toll difficult. The regional Work Safety Department said 27 miners were dead and 18 missing.

Police surrounded the mine compound and barred reporters from entering. Grim-faced workers and relatives sat outside the mine's main administrative building in Donetsk awaiting the news.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast at the Zasiadko mine, which was also the site of a May 1999 methane explosion that killed 50 miners and injured about 40 others.

President Leonid Kuchma ordered that a government commission be formed to look into the causes of the accident, said his spokesman, Oleksandr Martynenko. Kuchma also planned to visit the mine Monday.

Ukraine, once the pride of the Soviet Union for its huge coal mining industry, has more than 200 working and mostly unprofitable mines that were devastated by the Soviet collapse in 1991.

After the government of independent Ukraine slashed subsidies to the coal industry, the death rate began to rise. Last year, 318 coal workers died on the job, including 81 killed in a single explosion, and at least 120 have died so far this year.

Most accidents are blamed on outdated equipment and widespread disregard for safety rules. This year's second-deadliest accident was a May explosion at the Kirov mine that killed 10 and injured dozens of workers, also blamed on gross violation of safety rules.

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SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS OFF IN UKRAINE
By MARINA SYSOYEVA Associated Press Writer

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) . Rescue workers halted their search for survivors Monday in a coal mine in eastern Ukraine where a methane gas explosion killed 36 miners . the deadliest disaster in the country's coal industry this year.

Thirty-nine people remained hospitalized Monday, most with severe burns, after the Sunday blast at the Zasiadko mine in the coal-rich Donetsk region, the regional Worker's Safety Department, which oversees investigations into mine accidents, said in a statement.

More than 1,000 rescue workers battled intense smoke and used rickety equipment to descend to the accident site 4,200 feet underground, searching through the night for survivors and fighting the fire ignited by the explosion.

They found only bodies, and pulled out 17 overnight, said Zasiadko union chief Yuriy Zayats and police guarding the mine. That was in addition to about a dozen pulled out on Sunday. Several bodies apparently remained missing, though reports from the various rescue teams made compiling an exact total difficult.

The safety department, Zayats and the Emergency Situations Ministry put the overall death toll at 36.

Rescuers planned to pump the shaft with a gaseous compound to extinguish the fire, the safety department said.

More than 250 miners were working in the mine at the time of the blast. Most were then brought to the surface.

Survivors who had been working in another shaft described three explosions in quick succession, though officials described one large blast.

Miners continued to work Monday in other shafts of the sprawling Zasiadko mine. On their way to and from shifts, they passed tents set up for officials investigating the accident who paced nervously.

Police surrounded the mine compound and barred reporters from entering. Grim-faced workers and relatives sat outside the mine's main administrative building in Donetsk awaiting the news.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast at the Zasiadko mine, which was also the site of a May 1999 methane explosion that killed 50 miners.

Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma, flew to Donetsk on Monday.

``We saw each other in May 1999 and we were all convinced that this would be the last tragedy at this mine,'' he said. ``We can restore everything but human lives cannot be returned.''

Kuchma questioned the wisdom of extracting coal at extreme depths where methane concentrations were increasing, noting that experts find it difficult to forecast natural processes happening deep underground.

``Then the question arises, who needs such coal?'' Kuchma said.

Ukraine's coal industry is considered among the world's most unsafe. Most accidents are blamed on outdated equipment and widespread disregard for safety rules.

Ukraine was once the pride of the Soviet Union for its huge coal mining industry, but after the government of independent Ukraine slashed subsidies, the accident rate began to rise. Last year, 318 coal workers died on

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MINERS BURIED IN UKRAINE
By MARINA SYSOYEVA Associated Press Writer

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) . Flags decorated with black ribbons flew at half-staff throughout Ukraine as the bodies of miners killed in a shaft explosion were buried Tuesday. An honor guard fired five salvos into the air in tribute.

``A great tragedy befell not only you but all the people of Ukraine,'' Fuel and Energy Minister Stanyslav Stashevskyi told some 2,000 mourners at a ceremony for 10 of the dead at Donetsk's Shcheglovske cemetery, just 50 yards from the mine entrance.

Others were to be buried in private ceremonies elsewhere Tuesday, and the rest of the 37 miners killed Sunday were to be buried later in the week.

High concentrations of methane gas and burning coal caused the accident, Oleksandr Agafonov, head of the commission investigating the blast, said Tuesday. Coal can heat itself to combustion, he said.

``A combination of these two natural factors led to the result,'' he told reporters.

Thirty-five miners were found dead after the blast set off a blaze 4,200 feet below the surface at the Zasiadko mine, and two died in a hospital, including one overnight, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Tuesday. Ten people are still missing.

Many relatives and miners blamed managers' aggressive efforts to accelerate production, despite the high levels of methane. They said miners worked in short shifts because of the danger, indicating that managers were also aware of the risk.

``You can imagine what it was like, in addition to the heat and depth,'' a miner who gave only his first name, Mykola, said at Tuesday's mass funeral.

President Leonid Kuchma has questioned the wisdom of extracting coal at extreme depths where methane concentrations were rising.

But the mine's board chairman, Yuhym Zviagilskyi, dismissed reports of possible safety violations, insisting that the mine's managers have invested in improving work safety.

The mine is one of the country's most modernized, but Ukraine's coal industry as a whole is considered among the world's most unsafe.

More than 3,640 miners have died on the job since 1991 as the government slashed Soviet-era subsidies to the industry, according to the Independent Miners' Union. At least 151 workers have died so far this year.

At the sprawling Zasiadko mine, miners continued to work Tuesday in other shafts.

Volodymyr Manshynyn, a miner disabled by a deadly explosion there in 1999, said work should have stopped until all the bodies were retrieved.

``They are working in a burial vault,'' he said grimly.