Government to 'improve mining safety' after blast

PM Kopacz meets rescue workers after one miner went missing following methane explosion at "Mysłowice-Wesoła" coal mine: photo - PAP/Andrzej Grygiel

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, who visited the colliery in southern Poland on Tuesday, said she had ordered that work be accelerated on restructuring the coal mining industry – after trade union protests last week – with an emphasis on increasing safety down the mines.

The search for the coal miner, who went missing 665 metres below ground after the methane explosion on Monday night, had to be suspended early Tuesday after fears of further explosions.

An anguished Franciszek Jankowski (left) father of the missing coal miner, in front of media, Tuesday: photo - PAP/Andrzej Grygiel

Ewa Kopacz also visited the injured and their families at hospitals in Siemianowice and Sosnowiec in the industrial Silesian province, where 18 coal miners are in a critical condition, with some suffering up to 80 degree burns.

“These are people who deserve the highest quality of care,” PM Kopacz, a former health minister, said.

Twelve of the most seriously injured were operated on at the Burns Treatment Center in Siemianowice on Tuesday afternoon.

Vice-president of the State Mining Authority (WUG) Wojciech Magiera said at a press conference that the explosion had two possible causes: a spontaneous combustion of gasses, or mining blasts that had been reported near the area of the disaster. (pg)

source: IAR/PAP