#8. Siberia Mine Explosion
Many of Russia's coal mines are aging, dilapidated and dangerous. The
Ulyanovskaya mine, by contrast, located in the Kemerovo region of Siberia,
about 2,000 miles east of Moscow, was less than five years old, and had
modern safety features. None of that, however, was enough to prevent a
massive methane explosion from ripping through the mine on Mar. 19,
collapsing tunnels as the blast wave radiated from an epicenter nearly 900
ft. down. Working their way through smoke and flooded shafts, rescuers got
more than 90 miners safely out — making the death toll of 107 a lot lower
than it could easily have been.