The 2010 Zonguldak mine disaster occurred in
Zonguldak Province,
Turkey, on May 17, when 30
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
s died in a
firedamp explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...
at the Karadon
coal mine.
The mine is operated by the state-owned Turkish Coal Corporation (Türkiye Taşkömürü Kurumu, TTK). On May 20, 2010, rescuers retrieved the bodies of 28 workers;
the bodies of two more were only recovered eight months later. This was the third mining disaster in Turkey in six months: 19 miners were killed in December 2009 in a methane gas explosion in
Bursa Province, and in February 2010, 13 miners died after an explosion in a mine in
Balıkesir Province
Balıkesir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea, Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale Province, Çanakkale to the west, İzmir Province, İzmir to the southw ...
.
According to statistics collected by the General Mine Workers Union (Genel Maden İşçileri Sendikası) of Turkey, 25,655 accidents occurred in Turkish Coal Corporation mines during the preceding ten years (2000–2009), in which over 26,000 mine workers were injured, and 63 lost their lives. According to statistics by the Chamber of Mining Engineers (Maden Mühendisleri Odası) of Turkey, a total of 135 miners were killed in mining accidents in general in the years 2008 and 2009.
Prime Minister
Erdoğan, visiting the site of Zonguldak in 2010 after the accident, declared that the "people of this region are used to incidents like this", which are "the fate
of this profession", while calling protests against the unsafe working conditions in the state mines a "provocation".
Other mining disasters
Several other mining disasters have occurred in Turkey’s mines:
*1992: A firedamp explosion killed 270 workers.
See also
*2014 Soma mine disaster
On 13 May 2014, blasting at Eynez coal mine in Soma, Manisa, Turkey, caused an underground mine fire, which burned until 15 May. In total, 301 people were killed in what was the worst mine disaster in Turkey's history. The mine, operated by co ...
*Zonguldak basin The Zonguldak basin of northwestern Turkey is the only basin in Turkey with mineable coal deposits. It has been mined for coal since the late 1800s. The basin takes its name after Zonguldak, Turkey, and lies at approximately 41° N. It is roughly ...
References
Explosions in 2010
2010 in Turkey
Coal mining disasters in Turkey
2010 mining disasters
History of Zonguldak Province
May 2010 events in Turkey
2010 disasters in Turkey
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