Investigators searching for cause of Polish mine explosion

Polish investigators have today started to question witnesses to try to determine the cause of a mine explosion that killed 23 men, as they waited for gas to be ventilated from the deep shaft so they could see the scene for themselves.

Autopsies were also being performed on the miners who were killed in Tuesday’s explosion, the deadliest in three decades.

Investigating commission member Krzysztof Cybulski said it was highly probable that all the miners died in the coal-dust and methane gas explosion rather than by the resulting cave-ins in the shaft, which is 3,000-feet deep.

“Coal dust explosion means high temperature and high pressure, but first of all it means huge quantities of carbon monoxide,” he said on TVN24.

“The point now is to find the source of the methane gas ignition.”

Ventilators were being run at the shaft to try and clear out enough of the remaining gas for investigators to enter the site, Halemba mine spokesman Jan Sienkiewicz said.

In the meantime, investigators were trying to get a better picture of the disaster by talking with witnesses, including the rescue crews that recovered the miners’ bodies, prosecutor Michal Szulczynski said.

The men, aged 21 to 59, were killed as they were attempting to retrieve equipment from a shaft that was closed in March because of dangerously high gas concentrations.

The Coal Co. operating the mine, said equipment worth £12m (€17.7m) was left behind, and the team had been sent in to retrieve it under the supervision of specialists.