Russia evacuates 140 coal miners amid reports of a fire

MOSCOW (AP) — About 140 miners are being evacuated from a coal mine in the Russian region of Siberia amid reports of a fire in one of the mine’s sections. The evacuations Sunday come weeks after a devastating blast in another coal mine in the same region killed 51 people. Emergency officials told Russia’s Interfax news agency that a fire occurred in an abandoned mine gallery in the Anatoly Ruban coal mine in the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia. Interfax said some 140 miners were being evacuated but the fire didn’t pose a threat to their lives. The Siberian Coal Energy Company said the evacuation was prompted by the “heating of a coal bed” rather than a fire. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.