Fires and explosions

Citation

(2003), "Fires and explosions", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2003.07312cac.002

Fires and explosions

Fires and explosions

16 May 2002 – Coal mine, Hunan Province, China

Rescue workers are searching for 18 miners, missing after a gas explosion, at a coal mine in China's southern province of Hunan, the official Xinhua news agency says. The blast ripped through the mine in Wentang township in Xinhua county yesterday afternoon, it said in an overnight report without giving further details.

16 May 2002 – Coal Mine, Vulcan, Romania

A blast has killed at least three miners and injured four in the Jiu Valley, Romania's richest coal basin, and authorities say there is little chance of finding survivors. Rescuers have brought three blackened corpses out of the mine where a gallery collapsed late yesterday. Mine sources said rescuers were searching for "seven missing miners". An Industry Ministry spokeswoman said today there were "minimum chances to find survivors given the long time people had to remain without oxygen". The number of men working in the pit near the small town of Vulcan when the blast occurred, 100 metres underground, was not immediately known. Industry Minister Dan Popescu said rescue operations and an investigation were under way. "Preliminary data showed the accident was caused by a gas leak, we're not speaking of any human fault," Popescu told private television, speaking from the mine 250 miles west of Bucharest.

18 May 2002 – Coal mine, Shanxi Province, China

An accident at an illegal coal mine in Shanxi province is believed to have killed 23 miners. The accident, on 4 May, occurred when floodwaters rushed into the mine in Jinshan Canyon near Yuncheng city, causing a gas explosion which trapped the miners, Xinhua reported. The accident was not reported until yesterday by Xinhua, which said it was unlikely that the miners survived. Xinhua said mine officials tried to cover up the accident and waited three days before starting rescue operations. Rescuers were then unable to make much progress as the mine was flooded, the agency added. The mine manager is now being detained by authorities for investigation. Since the accident was revealed, rescuers have been trying to pump water from the mine but have found no bodies. Teams of officials have also arrived at the scene. The rescue effort has been hindered by fears of another gas explosion. Xinhua said the mine manager attempted to conceal the accident by dispersing the remaining miners, paying the victims' family members to keep quiet about the accident and moving mining equipment away from the scene of the accident. When confronted about the accident by authorities and journalists, the owner said only ten miners were trapped in the mine.

24 May 2002 – Coal mine, Heilongjiang Province, China

Only four of 21 miners escaped from a fire yesterday in a coal mine in Heilongjiang province. Rescuers were last night searching for more survivors at the Yihejiacheng coal mine in Shuangyashan, although the chance of finding any was slim, Xinhua news agency said. The report did not say what started the fire.

25 May 2002 – Factory, Agra, India

Fire engulfed a shoe factory in northern India today, killing at least 40 people and injuring several others, news reports said. The death toll could rise, as many people were feared trapped inside the factory in Agra, 110 miles south-east of New Delhi, Mahesh Kumar Gupta, the top government administrator, was quoted as saying. The news agency said an electrical short-circuit caused the fire. Army and air force fire engines joined efforts to extinguish the fire and rescue those trapped inside the building.

28 May 2002 – Coal mine, Human Province, China

Two miners were confirmed dead and 11 others missing after a gas explosion ripped through a central Chinese coal mine, the latest in a string of mining accidents in Hunan province, a local official and press reports said today. The mine blast occurred early yesterday evening in the privately-run Qingshu No. 1 Mine in Fengping township, Xinhua news agency said on its Web site. Four miners escaped from the mine blast, of whom three were injured, while mine officials had little hope of finding the 11 missing miners alive, the report said. Investigations into the cause of the mishap are ongoing, the official named Yang, said.

1 June 2002 – Coal mine, Chaoyang Area, China

A gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in north-east China, killing up to 14 people, the official Xinhua News Agency said today. Only two bodies have been recovered following Thursday's (30 May) accident at the mine near Chaoyang, a city in Liaoning province, the report said. But it quoted mine officials as saying there was no chance that 12 other missing miners could have survived the blast some 2,200 feet underground. Ten miners who were working closer to the surface survived but were injured, the report said. It said rescuers trying to reach the blast site had cleared 130 feet of rubble from a mine shaft, but still had twice that far to go.

16 June 2002 – Internet cafe, Beijing, China

At least 24 people were killed and 13 injured during a fire in an Internet cafe in Beijing today, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua said the fire broke out around 0240 hours in the Lanji Su Cybercafe in a university district in northwest Beijing. The fire was put out by 0330 hrs and an investigation is under way, Xinhua said.

20 June 2002 – Two teenage boys have been arrested for starting a fire that killed 24 customers in an unlicensed Beijing Internet cafe over the weekend, officials said today. The boys had argued with employees of the Lanjisu Cyber Cafe two weeks earlier and set Sunday's early morning (16 June) blaze out of revenge, said a statement from the Beijing city publicity department. It said the boys had confessed. In total 13 other customers, mostly students, were injured in the fire. They were trapped behind a locked door and barred windows as thick smoke filled the cafe, located on the second floor of a two-storey concrete building. The government statement agreed with a survivor's account published in a newspaper that said he smelled gasoline and saw thick smoke coming up from the bottom of the stairs. The 24-hour cafe was located in the Haidian district in Beijing's north-west, the site of numerous universities and a centre of China's growing computer and high-"I" technology industries. The cafe's owner surrendered to police and is under investigation. After the fire, officials ordered Internet cafes in Beijing and other cities shut for safety inspections.

20 June 2002 – Coal mine, Jixi, China

More than 100 miners in north-east China are reported to be trapped following a gas explosion. The mine's general manager was among the trapped, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. The agency said that 25 of about 140 miners had been saved after the blast, which happened in the mining town of Jixi, 300 km east of Harbin near the Russian border. Eight were reported to have been taken to hospital in a serious condition.

21 June 2002 – A massive gas explosion yesterday in a north-eastern China coal mine killed at least 111 miners and left four others missing, an official said. A total of 24 workers from the Chengzihe mine in Jixi, a city in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, were hospitalised with injuries, said the city official. The explosion occurred at about 0945 hrs, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Rescue teams made an "all-out bid to save the lives of miners," the news agency said. The Chengzihe mine has 5,500 workers and produces 1.1 million tons of coal annually, Xinhua said. Work has been suspended at nine other coal mines under the jurisdiction of the Jixi municipality mining administration, which manages the Chengzihe mine, Xinhua said.

23 June 2002 – The death toll in a north-eastern China coal mine blast, blamed on faulty ventilation, has risen to 115, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today. All who were in the mine during Thursday's (June 20) blast have been accounted for and most bodies have been brought to the surface for cremation, Xinhua said. Another 24 miners reportedly survived the blast. The explosion on Thursday at the Chengzihe mine in Jixi, a city in Heilongjiang province, was the fourth deadliest in China's history, Xinhua said. Investigators are still trying to locate where the explosion occurred in order to determine the exact cause, Xinhua said, quoting Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety Supervision. However, he said it was clear that the ventilation system had not been working properly and mine workers were not following proper safety standards, Huang said. Those responsible will suffer "stern punishment," he said. The Chengzihe mine has 5,500 workers and produces 1.1 million tons of coal annually. Xinhua said some 25 members of the mine's management had died in the blast, including its general manager. Work has been suspended at nine other mines in Jixi following the accident.

25 June 2002 – Mont Blanc tunnel, France

The Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy has reopened to all heavy goods traffic except trucks carrying hazardous cargo, prompting protests by local residents and environmentalists. During the night, a small group of protesters blocked the first heavy freight truck trying to use the tunnel from entering and angrily set fire to its contents when they found a television crew aboard the largely-empty Belgian truck. The protesters, greatly outnumbered by journalists, dispersed at around 0200 hrs after letting down the truck's tyres. Further protests were expected later today, with local residents and environmentalists walking from the ski resort of Chamonix to the tunnel entrance.

28 June 2002 – Gold mine, Shanxi Province, China

A total of 46 miners died in an explosion at a gold mine in north China after being ordered to continue work, even though a fire had broken out underground, the Huashang Bao said today. Owners of the mine in Fanshi county, Shanxi province, later tried to cover up the blast, caused by tonnes of explosives stored in the pit, by secretly removing bodies under cover of night. An official in Fanshi county confirmed the accident at the mine. An official at the National Work Safety Bureau in Beijing said officials had been sent to the scene. The report said the blast happened on 22 June, just two days after an explosion at a coal mine in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang killed 115 people. The Huashang Bao, citing a miner who lost three relatives in the blast, said 117 miners were underground when a fire broke out because of an electrical fault. Miners suggested they should evacuate but were ordered to continue work. More than an hour later, 3.6 tonnes of explosives stored underground ignited. The mine's owner and his brother later ordered the secret removal of bodies, he told the newspaper, saying many were removed on a truck in the middle of the night. The newspaper's reporter said that when he arrived in Fanshi county he was followed by a series of unidentified cars and stopped by security guards when he attempted to enter a hotel housing survivors and victims' relatives.

1 July 2002 – Investigators of a gold mine explosion in Yixingzhai, Shanxi province, had recovered 12 more bodies hidden separately in a cave and a gully, Xinhua reported last night. The latest discovery brought the confirmed death toll to 14. Earlier media reports, the first by the Xian-based Huashang Bao last Friday (28 June), said 46 miners were feared dead when an explosion ripped apart the mine in Fanshi county. Another report, by Xinhua, said mine contractors Yin Shan and Wang Quanquan who operated the mine were being sought on suspicion of reporting a false death toll. Fearing retribution, officials covered up the disaster when it happened on 22 June and claimed that only two people were killed and four injured in the explosion. A further 34 miners were "safely" evacuated after the explosion. The China News Service, quoted Shanxi vice-governor Jin Shanzhong, who visited the mine last Friday, as vowing to carry out an independent investigation and promising to punish those found responsible. He said he would give a satisfactory explanation to relatives of the victims. According to Xinhua, six bodies were found hidden in a cave about 10 km away from the mine and the entrance was blocked by plastic bags. Another six were found abandoned in a road-side gully. Two vehicles, used to transport the bodies, were also found. Two investigators sent by the State Bureau of Safe Production Supervision and Management in Beijing arrived in the village at the weekend.

3 July 2002 – Coal mine, Doulishan, China

A huge gas explosion at a coal mine in central China has killed at least eight miners, a local official said today. Workers and the owners of the mine in Doulishan town in Hunan province fled after the underground explosion yesterday and have not been found, said a town official. One miner was missing, she said. It was not immediately clear how many were working in the mine during the blast. The cause was still under investigation. Four of those killed were being lowered into the mine when the blast damaged a power house at the mine's head, the official Xinhua News Agency said. A miner who was operating a winch in the building was also killed, it said. Three others who died were inside the mine when the blast hit.

5 July 2002 – Coal mine, Jilin Province, China

A total of 39 people are thought to have been killed early today when a blast ripped through the Fuqiang coal mine in north-eastern Jilin province near the North Korean border, a local official said. State-run Xinhua news agency quoted local authorities as saying there was little likelihood anyone had survived the blast, which took place at 0212, local time, yesterday. The official said it was unclear if any of the 39 miners were North Korean. North Koreans have frequently slipped across the border in the past to take menial jobs inside Jilin province.

7 July 2002 – Coal mine, Donetsk, Russia

Fire has trapped more than 30 miners underground at a mine in the eastern Donetsk region in Ukraine. The Emergencies Ministry said 107 miners were underground when the fire broke early today at a depth of 670 metres at the Ukrainsk pit. "Most of the miners were evacuated, but 33 are still down there. A search and rescue operation is continuing," a spokesman for Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry said.

8 July 2002 – A deadly blaze raged through a Ukrainian coal mine, killing 33 miners in the Donestsk region in eastern Ukraine, the emergencies ministry said. Two others were injured in the fire that erupted at a depth of 670m at the Ukraine mine, near the town of Ukrainsk, the ministry said. A total of 107 miners were working below ground at the time, and rescuers were able to bring 74 to the surface, in a huge emergency operation which mobilised some two dozen rescue teams. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and ordered the government to make available financial compensation to the families as a matter of urgency, said his spokeswoman, Olena Gromnytska. Earlier, Interfax news agency said the government had said it would release a compensation package of four million hyrvnia ($A1.36 million) for the victims' families.

8 July 2002 –

Two more people died from a fire in a coal mine in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, bringing the death toll in the country's deadliest mine accident this year to 35, officials said today. According to a preliminary investigation, a conveyor malfunction at the Ukraine mine in the town of Ukrainsk yesterday prompted its line to catch fire some 1,155 feet underground, filling the shaft with smoke, mine officials said. Rescue teams initially found 30 dead miners in a trolley and three nearby; another body was found today. One miner also died at the hospital, mine trade union head Viktor Vernykovskyi said today. Nine miners remain hospitalized, two in critical condition, he said.

8 July 2002 – Nightclub, Palembang, Indonesia

At least 20 people have died in a fire that destroyed a nightclub in Indonesia's South Sumatra province. Police said the blaze gutted four floors of a large karaoke bar in the provincial capital of Palembang. Several of the victims died after jumping from windows on the upper floors to escape the flames, Prioyono said. He said investigators believe the blaze was caused by an electrical short circuit. Rescuers blasted through the wall of the club to allow dozens of people trapped inside to escape from the burning building. Firefighters extinguished the fire today, Prioyono said, adding that they expected to discover more bodies after searching through the building.

9 July 2002 – Police in Indonesia say the manager of a karaoke bar on Sumatra island, where fire killed 53 people, has been detained for questioning. Rescuers have concluded their search of the smouldering remains of the five-storey Heppi Karaoke bar, after finally reaching the top floor of the complex. Officials say the bar complex lacked fire safety features and had also violated its building permit by adding two additional floors without government consent. Mulian Setun, operations chief of the Palembang fire department, says rescuers had to wait until the heat on the fifth floor, triggered by steam and smouldering embers, had dropped before they could reach the gutted area. "Our last count is 53 dead bodies. Many of them were devastatingly charred," Mr Setun said.

17 July 2002 – Coal mine, Yangquan Area, Shanxi Province, China

A gas explosion killed five miners and trapped six deep inside a large state-owned coal mine in northern China, an official said today. A cave-in sealed off the six men after Monday's (15 July) blast near Yangquan, in Shanxi province, said an official at the city's mine safety supervision bureau. "They are trapped quite deep in the mine. We don't know their condition right now," he said, adding that rescuers must dig through 150 metres of rock to reach them. The cause was being investigated, he said. Past explosions have been caused by pockets of flammable gas trapped in rock seams.

21 July 2002 – Coal mine, Pershrotravensk, Ukraine

At least three people have been killed and more than 100 are missing after a methane gas explosion ripped through a Ukrainian coal mine. Rescuers brought 304 miners out of the mine after the blast and found three bodies. Ihor Krol, an official at the Emergency Situations Ministry, said three of the rescued miners are in serious condition. Krol said that 423 miners were underground at the time of the explosion at the Yuvileina mine in Pershrotravensk, in Ukraine's eastern Dnepropetrovsk region.

21 July 2002 – Nightclub, Lima, Peru

At least 24 people have been killed in a fire at a nightclub in the Peruvian capital, Lima, officials say. The blaze swept through the Utopia discotheque in the Surco district at about 0300, local time. Authorities said there were about 1,000 revellers in the club at the time and it is feared the number of casualties could rise. Police said the blaze was started by a juggler tossing flaming batons during a party to celebrate the club's second month open to the public. Other reports said bartenders had been performing stunts with fire. Local media said there was complete panic in the club, with people throwing alcohol rather than water on to the flames, causing the fire to spread. "It all happened incredibly quickly, everything happened in a matter of seconds. It was so fast people didn't realise," said an eyewitness. He said some people jumped from the second floor trying to flee the blaze. Peruvian radio said there was a stampede during the rush to escape from the building. More than 40 people were injured, Lima fire department said. Fire hazard 0fficer, Tulio Nicolini, from the Peruvian fire service, said safety standards in the discotheque were "totally non-existent". He said the nightclub had no water sprinklers, adding that the blaze was "a disaster waiting to happen". The mayor of the neighbourhood, Carlos Dargent, said the discotheque was illegal and the building, which was in the Jockey Plaza shopping centre, was unlicensed. A lion and a tiger, which were on show in cages in the club, also died in the blaze.

24 July 2002 – Coal mine, Yunnan Province, China

In total, eight miners died in a gas explosion at a state-owned pit in south-west China after a ventilation fan was incorrectly installed, state media said. The blast tore through the Shuanghe Coal Mine in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, on Saturday morning (20 July), the Xinhua news agency reported. The eight miners died instantly and all the bodies had been recovered, it said. Initial investigations showed the fan caused a gas build-up, leading to the accident, local safety officials told the agency.

26 July 2002 – Coal mine, Guizhou Province, China

A gas explosion at an unlicensed coal mine in China's south-western province of Guizhou has killed 18 people and injured seven, according to the Beijing Morning Post. The newspaper said Wednesday's (24 July) explosion at the privately-run Taojiawan coal mine in Liupanshui added to the deaths of more than 240 miners since June and an investigation was under way.

1 August 2002 – Coal mine, Donetsk, Ukraine

An underground explosion tore through a coal mine last night in the Ukraine, killing at least 19 miners in the latest disaster to hit the country's mining industry. Two miners were still missing after the explosion, which occurred 1,084 metres underground, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Dozens of rescue teams converged at the scene at the Zasiadko mine in Donetsk in south-eastern Ukraine, the ministry said. A total of 19 bodies had been brought to the surface as of late yesterday. It wasn't immediately known what caused the blast, which was the latest in a series of accidents at mines in the Ukraine. Earlier yesterday, Ukraine's work safety agency suspended work in 43 mines for violations of safety regulations in the wake of the recent accidents.

4 August 2002 – Coal mine, Tanghuangping, Hubei Province, China

The bodies of six workers trapped after a gas explosion in a coal mine in central China, have been recovered, bringing the death toll to eight. A total of 25 miners were working underground at the Tanghuangping mine in Hubei province when the blast happened on Friday (2 August). Two died immediately, including the mine owner, who had refused an order to stop production for safety examinations in late June, it was reported. Seventeen others escaped.

10 August 2002 – Warehouse, Jalalabad, Afghanistan

The Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, says that preliminary investigations indicate that an explosion in the eastern city of Jalalabad – which killed at least 26 people – was the result of an accident. Mr Abdullah said there could have been negligence in the storing of large quantities of explosives in the building where yesterday's explosion occurred – the warehouse of a construction firm. Another 80 people were injured in the blast, which destroyed or damaged many buildings. Six officials from the construction firm are being questioned in connection with the blast. "So far the results of the investigations carried out by the local authorities as well as people who were sent from here shows that it has been an accident," Mr Abdullah said in Kabul today. Many of the victims appear to have been living in houses near to the warehouse.

13 August 2002 – Coal mine, Jixi City, Heilongjiang, China

A total of ten miners were killed yesterday and one is missing after a gas explosion at an illegally run coal mine in northeastern China, state media said. Rescue teams found ten bodies after the 0400 hrs blast at the Xing ken Coal Mine in Jixi city, Heilongjiang province, the Xinhua news agency said. An official in charge of the rescue operation said there was little hope that the 11th miner had survived, the agency reported. "The explosion has been blamed on illegal operations at the mine," Xinhua said, quoting sources within the provincial government. The mine was meant to have been closed for safety checks.

20 August 2002 – Coal mines, Western China

Gas explosions at two coal mines in western China have killed a total of nine miners and left one person missing. State media reports the blast in one mine occurred as workers were rushing to meet a government deadline requiring illegal mines to shut down by this week. The Xinhua news agency says four miners were caught in the blast while they were trying to tear down shafts used for transporting coal. A gas explosion in a second mine killed five people, while one person remains missing. Chinese authorities have ordered thousands of illegal mines across the country to close but many are continuing to operate.

21 August 2002 – Apartment block, Moscow, Russia

Rescuers are combing through rubble in search of survivors after an explosion ripped through a Moscow apartment block yesterday, killing at least seven people and burying scores of others, emergencies officials have said. Officials said yesterday night's blast was probably caused by a gas leak, but residents said they had smelled gunpowder and not gas after the explosion. "At present we are considering the preliminary explanation given by specialists and Moscow police, who say it was a gas explosion. Let the specialists make their final assessments," Igor Babayevsky, the deputy head of Moscow's emergencies department, told Russian television. "The fact that the house is ruined is evidence of weak construction and a high concentration of gas." Officials at Russia's Emergencies Ministry said at least seven bodies, including that of a child, had been pulled from the debris. Eight people were taken to hospital after the blast ripped through the five-storey block of flats but a dozen people could still be buried under the rubble, they added. "According to the information we have now, there could be 12 people under the collapsed building," Russia's Emergencies Minister, Sergei Shoigu, told Interfax news agency from the scene today, adding that a final list of residents had not yet been established, "We expect to finish work at the site within two hours." The explosion happened just after 2200 hrs (1900, UTC). Russian media reported around 166 people were in the apartment building when the blast occurred. The blast pulled down the top four floors and ten apartments of the five-storey block. The front section of the building collapsed completely onto the pavement, littering it with rubble, broken glass and belongings.

24 August 2002 – Coal mine, Heilongjiang Province, China

Nine miners working underground were killed in a gas explosion at a small coal mine in north-east China's Heilongjiang Province on Thursday morning (22 August). The accident occurred at 0540, local time, at the Xinjian No. 3 Shaft which belongs to the Qitaihe Mining Group in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang. The local mining safety supervision bureau and company leaders rushed to the site immediately. The nine miners are confirmed to have died at the scene. Authorities will investigate the cause of the accident and punish those found responsible. Zhang Liancheng, a deputy general manager of the company, attributed the explosion to an electricity and ventilation failure.

3 September 2002 – Coal mine, Shuangfeng Province, China

A total of 33 miners were killed when a gas explosion tore through a coal mine in the central Chinese province of Hunan today, Xinhua news agency reported. Six miners were missing and 16 miners were rescued after the explosion, which ripped through the Qiuhu Coal Mine in Shuangfeng county before dawn as 55 miners toiled deep underground, Xinhua said in a report from the provincial capital Changsha. "Rescue workers say that there is little hope that the six missing miners could survive," Xinhua reported. Local government officials were coordinating rescue efforts as investigators probed the cause of the blast, it said.

17 September 2002 – Factory, Odogunyan, Nigeria

About 120 factory workers were feared dead after a massive fire swept through a rubber slippers/aluminium spoon/bottled water factory in the early hours of yesterday, at Odogunyan, in Ikorodu, Lagos State. A total of 11 survivors of the fire incident are now receiving treatment in a private hospital in the town, while about ten choice cars and buses, belonging to the management staff of the Taiwanese company, Super Engineering Company, were vandalised by hoodlums who stormed the scene in a bid to loot. Seven of them had severe burns while the remaining four had gunshot wounds after they were fired at by villagers trying to scare away potential looters. An eyewitness said the fire started between 0045 and 0100, yesterday, apparently from the company's store where, according to him, a large quantity of chemicals used in production was kept. About 250 factory workers were said to have reported to duty on Sunday night (15 September). They were in the thick of production when the fire started. It brought down the store instantly before spreading to other parts of the factory complex. A security person at the factory said that 250 workers reported for duty on Sunday night. Half of that number, 125, could not be immediately accounted for, he said. It was gathered that the casualty figure would probably have not been that high if the exit points had not been locked. General manager of the company, Mr M. Li, who claimed to have a licence to carry a gun told reporters that they fired gunshots to scare those that were breaking into their residential houses and warehouse with a view to looting. He admitted using a double-barrel gun but denied that the company gates were locked. Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, said that he and his men arrived at about 0230 after a distress message from the Ikorodu unit. He said, though, only 18 bodies had been recovered. They were burnt beyond recognition. Scores of bodies may still be trapped inside the company. Mr Okunbanjo said he had to call urgently for mobile police re-enforcement when it became clear that hoodlums and other workers of the company, angry at the fate of their colleagues trapped in the inferno, were out to mob the firemen and the few policemen on the ground.

18 September 2002 – At least 45 charred bodies have been recovered from a Nigerian plastics factory gutted by a fire that trapped an entire night shift, rescuers said today. The Nigerian Red Cross said 37 bodies were retrieved from the West African Rubber Products Company raw materials warehouse in Ikorodu, north-east of Lagos, yesterday. The exact number of workers on duty when fire swept through the factory, run by Chinese, Malaysian, Filipino, Taiwanese and Japanese expatriates, is the subject of intense controversy. Newspapers put the death toll in hundreds, saying scores of workers on a night shift numbering 250 remained missing. The management insists that just over 30 people were on duty in the warehouse when the fire broke out before dawn on Monday (16 September). But witnesses and other company officials said rioters set ablaze several other buildings in the complex of factories manufacturing household products and bottled water. The rioting was triggered by rumours that the entire night shift had perished in the inferno because the supervisor had locked them in and left on a break with the key. The company has denied the reports. Giving details of the bodies found yesterday, Red Cross spokesman Patrick Bawa said: "Yesterday morning, we retrieved 30 bodies and evacuated 11 badly burnt people who are now receiving treatment at Noah Hospital in Ikorodu. Seven additional bodies were retrieved later in the evening yesterday." Seven bodies had been found on Monday, police said. Rescuers said one worker died in hospital. However, Mun Kwan Lai, the factory's Malaysian general manager, questioned the figures, saying that there were only 32 workers on shift at the time of the fire. He said ten bodies were pulled out of the remains yesterday, and another two today. Together with the bodies recovered on Monday, the death toll so far should be 18, he added. But he acknowledged that none of the 32 workers on that shift had been accounted for, although company workers were trying to track down possible survivors.

21 September 2002 – Fireworks factory, Indonesia

An explosion at a fireworks factory in central Indonesia has killed ten people and injured many others. A senior police official in the central Javanese town of Slawi said that nine of the dead were women. He said that 15 other women had been injured. Police are investigating the cause of the blast which witnesses said destroyed nearby buildings. The explosion is said to have occurred in a room where workers were mixing raw materials for the fireworks. The factory's workforce, estimated at 86, is mostly made up of women.

15 October 2002 – Coal mine, Donetsk Area, Ukraine

Six miners were missing after a gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine this morning, emergency officials said. A total of 12 miners were working about a half-mile underground when a gas explosion tore through the Haevoho mine in the Donetsk region, a Spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Rescuers were working to free six miners trapped under rubble, but another six men remain missing.

24 October 2002 – Coal mine, Zhongyang, Shanxi Province, China

A powerful gas explosion, at a state-owned coal mine in China's northern province of Shanxi, has trapped 44 miners underground, the official Xinhua news agency said. The explosion rocked the Zhujiadian Coal Mine in Zhongyang at 1620 hrs yesterday as 52 miners were working underground, an overnight report seen today quoted provincial authorities as saying. Rescuers extricated eight miners, but the fate of the rest was unclear. Local officials were not immediately available for comment.

24 October 2002 – A powerful gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China, killing at least 15 miners and leaving 29 others missing, an official said today. Rescuers were digging through tunnels choked with tonnes of debris brought down by the blast yesterday afternoon in the Zhujiadian coal mine in Luliang, a city in Shanxi province, said the official of the city mine bureau. "They are still far from reach. We don't know whether they are still alive," said the official. A total of 65 miners were in the mine at the time of the blast, 21 were rescued and 15 bodies recovered. The rest are trapped some 900 metres below ground, he said.

5 November 2002 – Office block, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City officials today revised the final death toll to 60 from a massive fire that gutted a six-storey commercial building last week, saying a miscount had occurred. The earlier figure of 61 was given because the last body recovered from the ruins was counted twice, both at the Saigon hospital when it was first brought in and also at the military hospital morgue, where it was later transferred, said Nguyen Thanh Tien, a city Communist Party official. Seven bodies – five males and two females – out of the 60 remained unidentified because they were so badly burned, Tien said. An official with US insurer American International Assurance, the biggest tenant in the building, said today that 23 staff and policy agents were confirmed to have perished in the blaze. The company, which was holding a training course for nearly 100 agents at the time, said that seven employees remained unaccounted for, and were likely to be the unidentified bodies. Police said the fire last Tuesday (29 October) was caused by three welders working on a decorative lighting system at a disco inside the building. Casualties from the ensuing inferno included four foreigners, while more than 100 people were injured. Two welders surrendered to police on Thursday, admitting that they had accidentally set the ceiling on fire. Tien said police were still determining whether the third welder is in hiding or died in the blaze.

6 November 2002 – Train on passage from Paris to Vienna

A total of 12 people died from smoke poisoning in a fire on the Paris-Vienna express train near the city of Nancy early today, local officials said. The victims, apparently foreigners, were travelling in two German railways sleeper cars hit by the fire, which Nancy railway staff said they noticed as the train passed through on its way from Paris toward Strasbourg. Nine people were injured in the fire, which occurred about 0215 hrs (0015, UTC) and appeared to have been caused by a short circuit in the heating system, staff added. There were about 150 people on the train, which normally does not stop in Nancy. Railway staff who noticed the smoke had the power switched off, stopping the train about a half mile outside Nancy station. Local police said six men, five women and a child died in the fire.

16 November 2002 – Coal mine, Yunnan Province, China

A gas explosion in China's southern province of Yunnan has killed nine miners at a privately owned coal mine. Chinese state media says ten miners were working at the site when the explosion occurred. Local government officials are searching for the one missing miner and investigating the cause of the blast.

27 November 2002 – Coal mine, Jilin Province, China

At least 11 people have died following an explosion at a privately-run coal mine in north-eastern China, official media said today. The blast happened yesterday in Jilin province's Baishan municipality, where private mines had been ordered to close following another recent accident that also killed 11 people, the People's Daily Web site reported. There were more miners underground at the time of yesterday's accident, meaning the death toll could rise, the paper said.