Russia launches investigations after pit blast kills 51 miners and rescuers

Russia has opened several investigations after an explosion and fire at a coal mine in Siberia killed 51 people, prompting an outpouring of anger at pit bosses and safety inspectors, and amazement after a rescuer who was feared dead was brought out alive.

A gas explosion on Thursday at the mine in the coal-rich Kemerevo region of Siberia filled tunnels with toxic smoke, overwhelming dozens of workers and several rescuers who tried to evacuate them from about 250 metres underground.

Three managers at the Listvyazhnaya mine were detained late on Thursday, and on Friday two safety inspectors were arrested as part of a growing investigation into criminal negligence at the pit and the regional safety executive.

Local prosecutors said they visited 25 mines on Friday to inspect safety measures, equipment, working conditions and protective gear, and opened 55 administrative cases and one criminal case as a result of violations they found.

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Thursday’s disaster was the deadliest in a Russian pit since 2010, when methane explosions and fire killed 91 people at another mine in the Kemerovo region, and 36 miners died in 2016 when blasts tore through a pit in the Arctic.

Russia’s Soviet-era coal mines, many of them in inhospitable tracts of Siberia and the Far North, have a reputation for being extremely dangerous workplaces where safety rules are often flouted.

Russian media published comments from numerous current and former staff at the Listvyazhnaya mine and other Kemerevo pits, recounting how they were pressured to ignore safety warnings about high gas levels and keep working.

One said that workers put up with the life-threatening situation because “without coal, there is no pay,” while another said there were simply no other jobs in the depressed region.

"We had a situation about two months ago, when we reached the bottom [of the shaft] the gas was at seven per cent, and the permitted level is 0.75 per cent," one unnamed worker at the mine told the RBK newspaper.

“I pointed it out to the chief and he replied: ‘Get started.’ I asked him: ‘Do you hear what I’m saying?! Gas is at seven per cent!’ And the boss said: ‘If someone doesn’t like something, then go home.’”

Ruben Badalov, deputy chairman of the Russian independent union of coal industry workers, told RBK that employees at the Listvyazhnaya mine had not complained directly to his organisation about working conditions.

“But indirectly, we knew about the situation . . . Unfortunately, in many mines something is wrong. I’m talking about Russia in general.”

As the region began three days of mourning, rescuer Alexander Zakovryashin – who had been missing, presumed dead – was brought out alive from the pit and taken to hospital.

“The real heroes are those who died,” he said. “I fought for my life. In my place, anyone would do that.”