Search-and-rescue works in the “Raspadskaya” mine were stopped

Search-and-rescue operations in the “Raspadskaya” mine were stopped due to fires and gas contamination of the mine. This is what the Chief Military Expert EMERCOM of Russia Pavel Plat reported about. Rescue works are being conducted in difficult conditions with the presence of fire areas and difficult-to-reach underground working. “Search-and-rescue works were stopped. Our task is to distinguish fires and to reduce gas contamination. Only after that we can send people there. Unfortunately, the situation became worse. Gas contamination of some areas increased. This contamination is in the triangle area of the possible explosion, therefore we decided to stop the rescue works for some time,” reported Plat.

“Big fire areas were found during the research operations on the sixth level, which does not allow us to start up the ventilation system and let the air in , in order to reduce the gas contamination and improve the ventilation of the mine. At present, we are revitalizing the conduit system to transfer the water to the sixth level in order to distinguish fire there,” said Pavel Plat.

He reported that two variants of water transfer are being developed now: through the conduit system and, at the same time the problem of power pumps delivery to the places of water storage is being discussed to bring that water to the places of fire.

The number of victims at the “Raspadskaya” mine increased to 66 people, there is no information about 24 people.