A fire in Ukraine has claimed the lives of 34 miners, bringing the country’s death toll from mining-related accidents to nearly 150 this year.
Thirty of the miners were in a trolley descending into the Ukraina mine in the town of Ukrainsk when the fire broke out, Col. Oleksey Pechenkin, a spokesman for the country’s Emergencies Ministry, told Reuters.
Three other victims were found near where the trolley had come to a halt, about 670 metres below ground, he said. Another miner was missing and presumed dead.
The Ukrainsk blaze was the second coal mine fire in as many days. The first occurred Saturday in the Rodina mine, near the eastern city of Kryvyi Rih; 60 miners there were evacuated without injury.
About 300 miners died last year in Ukraine’s deep coal mines, which are plagued by poor working conditions, lax safety rules and underfunding.
Ukraine’s coal industry has one of the world’s worst safety records. In the first six months of this year, 116 miners died in job-related accidents. More than 3,700 have died since Ukraine gained independence from the U.S.S.R. in 1991.
The World Bank hopes to release a US$250-million loan to Ukraine in September but is concerned that the government’s coal mining strategy contains no plans to cut the number of mines in operation.
About 450,000 people are employed at the country’s 193 mines.
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