Officials in the Far Northern Russian city of Vorkuta have decided to flood a coal mine there after explosions there killed 30 miners and six rescue workers late last month.
A Russian government commission said on March 6 that work to extinguish a fire in the Severnaya mine by flooding it with water would begin immediately and take 60 to 80 days.
Four miners were killed in the initial methane explosion on February 25. Twenty-six miners were missing following that explosion and rescue operations were begun in an attempt to locate them.
However, on February 28, a second explosion in the mine killed six rescue workers.
Authorities then ceased rescue operations and declared that the missing miners were dead.