Soma: 301 miners and the worst disaster in Turkey's history

SOMA, Turkey — On May 13, 2014, fire broke out in the Eynez lignite mine near Soma in western Turkey, during a shift change that put hundreds of men underground at once. By the time the last of the dead was counted the toll stood at 301, the worst mining disaster in Turkey's history and the deadliest in the world so far this century.

Most of the dead were killed by carbon monoxide. Men working far from the fire, at the end of entries with no independent escape route, were overcome by gas that moved faster than they could. Turkish investigators and an independent assessment pointed to a mine that had been operating with serious deficiencies in gas monitoring, ventilation and escapeway design, and to a safety record that had produced warnings for years.

The disaster was also the clearest international illustration in decades of a mine that had grown too large to evacuate. Underground coal operations all over the world rely on the same controls: ventilation that can be reversed or separated, escapeways that are maintained and known, self-rescuers that are carried and understood, and a rescue capability that exists before it is needed.

In the years since, Turkey has tightened some mine safety rules and prosecuted mine officials, and families have continued to fight for accountability. The number 301 has become shorthand in the international mining community for what happens when production outruns the safety system.

For miners in the United States, the distance is not as great as it looks. Soma was a mine with gas monitors, with regulations and with inspectors. What it did not have was a working system of escape and a culture that would stop production to fix the air.