OREANDA-NEWS. At least one person was killed and more than 40 injured as a result of a fire that occurred on Thursday, November 25, at the Listvyazhnaya coal mine in the city of Belovo, Kemerovo region. The ambulance station in Belovo reported that currently five victims are in serious condition, another 36 are in a state of moderate severity. All of them were poisoned by combustion products. In turn, the Kuzbass Center for Disaster Medicine stated that 43 victims were delivered to the Kuzbass Clinical Center for the Health of Miners: two in serious condition, another 41 in a state of mild and moderate severity.

According to the updated data, the fire started after coal dust ignited in the ventilation shaft at a depth of 250 meters, after that the smoke spread through the ventilation throughout the mine, where, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there were 285 people. The administration of Listvyazhnaya reported that 237 miners were evacuated, 48 more people remain in the mine, but they «independently rise to the surface».

In connection with this incident, the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kemerovo region opened a criminal case under the article «violation of the requirements of industrial safety of hazardous production facilities, which caused the death of a person by negligence».

According to data from open sources, accidents on the Listvyazhnaya mine occurred twice: on January 24, 1981 — an explosion of methane in the accumulating drift (five people died) and on October 28, 2004 — an explosion of a methane-air mixture (13 people died).