Five people have died in an accident that occurred around 8.45 on Monday inside the Zarréu mine, in the Asturian municipality of Degaña (805 inhabitants), as reported by the Emergency Service of Principality of Asturias (SEPA), and four other people have been injured, one with a cranioephalic trauma and two of them with serious burns. The five deceased are residents of the province of León – four of Villablino and one of Fabero – and had ages between 32 and 54 years, reports the Government delegation. The communities of Asturias and Castilla y León have joined to decree two days of official mourning
The tragedy has occurred in an old coal mine in which the Principality of Asturias granted months ago a research permit to the company Blue Solving “to analyze the mineral” and seek a production alternative that in the future could justify the reopening of the exploitation, explain official sources of the Asturian government. These same sources confirm that the main hypothesis that researchers handle is that the accident was produced by an explosion of Grisú, an flammable gas for whose detection are usually used that are not always effective, they explained on Monday with active mining pain and others retired, all gathered in the mouth of the mine.
Equipment of Asturias, the Hunosa Mining Rescue Brigade and the Civil Guard, aided by a canine unit, have arrived to the place.
In the esplanade of access to the site, relatives of the deceased and injured have been concentrated, in addition to colleagues in the sector. Scenes of rage and misunderstanding have been happened due to the causes of disaster. “It is too soon” to explain what happened, the authorities alleged, headed by the president of the Principality, the socialist Adrián Barbón, and the Government delegate, Adriana Lastra. The head of the Autonomous Executive has asked for respect for the families of the victims. “There are authentic tragedies … of parents with very young children,” he lamented after talking with some relatives, who, he said, are living a “terrible situation.” Barbón has highlighted the work of the rescue and rescue teams that have given a “coordinated response” and rapid before a “impossible to predict” tragedy.
The Minister of Ecological Transition and Industry, Belarmina Díaz, who is also a mines engineer, advanced since the investigation will be long: “It remains a lot of work.” In the investigations, in addition to experts from Hunosa and regional technicians, investigators of the Civil Guard Judicial Police arrived from A Coruña.
One of the four injured has been transferred by helicopter to the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), in Oviedo; Two others have been taken to the Villablino hospital (León); and a basic life support ambulance has transferred the last to the Carmen and Severo Ochoa de Cangas del Narcea (Asturias) hospital. The four remain stable within gravity. Two other people, present at the scene of the accident, have been unharmed. The bodies of the five deceased have been removed outside the mine after 15.00 in several funeral cars to the Institute of Legal Medicine of Oviedo.
Members of the families of the mine workers have complained about the lack of information. A relative of one of the deceased has assured this newspaper that the miner’s couple learned about the accident on television. Already at the entrance of the exploitation, this affected continues, they have not felt attended: “Total misinformation. Everyone passed the ball.”
The Government spokesman of the Principality of Asturias, Guillermo Peláez, has insisted that the company was doing work with an exploitation permit related to a possible use of mineral for graphite manufacturing. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Industry and Commerce of Asturias, Belarmina Díaz, has declared that “in the mine it is not exploding. It is a complementary investigation permit and that so far is what we know. Let us rebuild ourselves from this mail.” “We have to analyze all the information, we do not know very well what concrete work occurred or what was happening,” he added, he states
Some employees consulted by this newspaper point in the same line as the main hypothesis, which the explosion has been for an flammable gas composed mainly of methane that accumulates in coal mines and that, when coming into contact with a spark or a heat source, can trigger devastating results.
The same hypothesis of the explosion by Grisú has launched, with reservations, the Government delegate in Asturias, Adriana Lastra, who has indicated that the accident has been recorded around 8.45. “Now the important thing is that the Judicial Police is already investigating what has happened, they are already on the ground, and in principle what it seems is that it has been an explosion of Grisú, but as I tell you you have to wait for the Judicial Police to do their job,” said the delegate to the doors of the mine. The place has also moved the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, and the Government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen. Díaz has assured that “the weight of the law will fall on the possible responsibilities on this issue. In the 21st century no one can die” and has called to wait for “the result of the investigation” to “then act.”
The 112-Asturias Emergency Coordination Center received a call at 9.32 in which an incidence in the mine was alerted. In another subsequent communication, the informant explained that there had been a problem with a machine. After the notice, the rescue group was activated with a medicalized helicopter of the SEPA and also the other two multifunction helicopters of the autonomous body, one to transfer to the Mining Rescue Brigade from the Fondón well – another historical mining exploitation, already closed – and the other to transfer the intervention personnel to the place, among others, the canine unit, the canine unit reports.
The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has transmitted through his account of X his condolences to the relatives of the victims of the accident and has wished a prompt recovery to the injured, while thanking the work of the emergency services: “A sense hugs the relatives of the fatal victims of the accident produced in a mine in Degañ They are working on rescue work, ”said the president.
A sense hugs the relatives of the fatal victims of the accident produced in a mine in Degaña, Asturias. And my desire for a prompt recovery to those who have been injured.
Thanks to the emergency services that are working on rescue work.
– Pedro Sánchez (@sánchezCastejon)
The third vice president and minister for ecological transition and demographic challenge, Sara Aagesen, has sent through the networks her “condolences and” a big hug “to the relatives of the deceased people, in addition to their” desires of prompt recovery to those who have been injured. “
The president of the Principality of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, explained in X that he had been informed of the accident when the Governing Council was held and sent his condolences to the families. He also added that he was on his way to Degaña to move to the advanced command post, where the Government delegate, the Minister Díaz, and the Director General of Local Cooperation and Security, Jorge Olmo, were already. Barbón also announced that he has ordered the two -day official statement in the Principality of Asturias, “as a sign of respect for deceased people.” In coordination with his Asturian counterpart, the Castilian president and Leonese, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, has also decreed two days of official mourning in his community and has transmitted his “condolences” and his “love” for families, companions and friends.
The Zarréu mine was, for years, an essential pillar for the Southwestern Asturian. Its exploitation generated employment and energized the local economy. In its largest period of activity, it not only provided direct work to numerous miners, but also stimulated a network of services and shops in the area.
when a 40 -year -old life lost his life after the collapse of a tunnel. The miner’s body was buried by the tons of rocks and coal that fell on the truck in which it was, about two kilometers from the tunnel entrance.
Despite technological advances and security measures implemented in mines in recent years, accidents by Grisú remain a reality. In 2022, a catastrophe in Türkiye for the same cause caused the death of at least 41 people. About 110 miners were in the area at the time of the explosion; Almost half of them, more than 300 meters deep when the event occurred.
In Spain, the most recent fatal accident in a mine occurred just over two years ago, when three geologists died due to detachment in a gallery in Suria (Barcelona), while the most serious of the last decades took place on August 31, 1995 in the San Nicolás de Mieres well, in Asturias, when 14 miners lost their lives after an explosion of Grisú gas in the San Nicolás Pozo.
