On Saturday, rescuers located four of the miners buried at the Zofiowka mine. According to JSW, rescue teams were able to rescue two of the workers in quick succession on Sunday. One doctor was only able to determine the men’s deaths, the operating company said. Late in the afternoon, JSW said a doctor also confirmed the deaths of two other miners.
“Rescue teams will continue to search for the other six,” he said. However, conditions in the affected area are difficult. The high concentration of methane and rising temperatures would delay rescue measures. As a result, methane gas escaped from the mine. 42 of the 52 miners who were underground at the time of the accident managed to return to the surface unharmed.
The Zofiowka mine had already been the scene of a mining accident in 2018. At that time, five miners died after an earthquake at the mine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed his dismay at the recent accident on Saturday. News about the earthquake at the mine was “devastating,” he said.
The mining accident in Pniowek only shook the people of Poland on Wednesday. A methane gas explosion occurred in the coal mine at a depth of about a thousand meters shortly after midnight. A second explosion occurred when rescue teams were already at the crash site. The blasts killed five people, including a rescue worker. Another 20 people were injured, some seriously.
The search for the seven missing persons in Pniowek was halted after another blast on Friday. JSW boss Tomasz Cudny called it “irresponsible” to continue using rescue services. Poland still gets about 70% of its energy from coal. Nearly 80,000 people work in the country’s mining sector.
Several mining accidents have occurred in the country in recent years. In 2021, two men died and two others were injured when a wall collapsed underground at the Myslowice-Wesola mine in southern Poland.