The mining country of Poland again had to worry about the victims of an underground accident at the weekend. The risk of explosions from a high concentration of methane gas hampered the search for ten people buried in the Zofiowka coal mine in Jastrzębie-Zdrój in southern Poland. After a tremor at the coal mine, ten miners were missing on Saturday morning, four of whom were found dead by Sunday afternoon. The mine management said it was not yet known where the other six people were buried.
She also confirmed that 52 miners were in the danger zone. 42 of them were able to escape uninjured on their own.
On Saturday evening, one of the twelve rescue teams deployed underground was able to reach four of the ten buried victims, but they gave no signs of life. One of them was transported to the surface during the night, where a doctor confirmed the death of the 36-year-old father of two. A 30-year-old man was found dead on Sunday morning and the third and fourth of the four miners found so far on Sunday afternoon.
Only on Wednesday there had been two methane gas explosions in a mine in Silesia belonging to the same company. Five men were recovered dead, seven more buried. The search for them was called off on Friday without result because it had become too dangerous for the rescuers themselves.
Landslides and other rock movements in coal mining can always release methane gas. In contrast to the mine accident on Wednesday, however, it had not yet exploded in the Zofiowka mine this weekend. As the mine management explained, pumping in air reduces the methane gas concentration to a less dangerous level, but it takes a lot of time for the rescuers.