The Donbas lacks time to bury its dead

Today funerals will be held for 28 miners who died in a mine explosion on April 4 at the Skochynsky Mine. Tomorrow another sixteen will be interred. Yesterday Donetsk bade farewell to nineteen of its sons, and the country is in mourning.

One of the worst tragedies in the history of the Ukrainian coal industry has claimed the lives of 63 miners. Another 43, injured during the accident, are being treated in the region’s Kalinin Hospital, and another four are in the oblast burn center.

Specialists say the nature of the Donetsk mine explosion was unique. It happened not in the pit, where explosions most often take place from the excessive build-up of methane, but on the conveyor where the air is untainted. Moreover, four and a half hours before the accident precisely there a planned shock detonation was conducted as a safety measure. The commission has already established that the schedule for all measures necessary to the mine’s operation was adhered to.

Why, then did the explosion occur? Specialists working on the commission investigating the tragedy say that they first considered some phenomenon involving gas and consider any version still premature. However, according to the information we have, many are inclined to speak about phenomena completely unstudied at such depths (the Skochynsky Mine attains depths of over 1200 meters) connected with microscopic earth tremors undetected on the surface but capable of igniting methane in such underground conditions. Possibly the concentration of methane itself in the explosion was not so great, but its force was multiplied in combination with coal dust and ignited when coming into contact with fresh air.

AP Photo:
“They remember about miners when they strike or when they die in large numbers...”