The situation at the “Raspadskaya” mine became worse, all the mine-rescuers are back on the surface

The situation at the “Raspadskaya” mine became worse; all the mine-rescuers are back on the surface. This is what the Chief Military Expert EMERCOM of Russia Pavel Plat reported about.

“During the night the situation became really worse, at 23.05 all the mine rescuers and firefighters were back on the surface,” he said.

According to the emergency relief center a lot of fires were noted in the mine. The gas situation became dramatically worse, 6% methane concentration was noted with 2% being the norm.

The decision was made to flood the dead-ends of the mine. This is necessary to do that in order to get read of the methane there. After that, ventilator is going to be started and the mine will be filled with reagent. According to specialists, it will take about 7 days to stabilize the situation in the mine. The decision to resume the search-and-rescue operation can be taken by the expert group members and the emergency operations center only after all the scheduled activities to eliminate the dangerous factors are conducted and the mine situation is evaluated.

The restricted mode of mine access and all its facilities is remaining at the mine.

At present, all the 66 bodies of the victims are on the service and were identified. 24 people are still missing.