Fatal accident of a Polish diver in the Czech mine Důl Hraničná

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On Sunday, July 31, a fatal accident occurred in the flooded Důl Hraničná mine in the Czech Republic, in which a diver from Poland died.

Local media in the country of our southern neighbors reported an accident last Sunday. A cave diver from Poland died in the flooded Důl Hraničná mine. No details of the entire incident are available at this point, we only know what the situation was like when rescuers arrived on the scene.

Today our unit went to the flooded mine in Hranična to help a Polish diver. The mine is difficult to access and when we arrived at the site, no one was waiting for us, so we didn’t know where to go. After covering about 300-400 meters in about 5 minutes in the underground corridors, we found the diver. We pulled the injured man out of the water and immediately started CPR. About 5 minutes later, our colleagues from Žulová came to our aid and connected the person to the AED. Together we resuscitated. Unfortunately, without success – reads the short message released by the rescuers.

Důl Hraničná is a defunct Czech iron ore mine located near Javornik. Mining of the ore ceased in the spring of 1968. In 2014, the site was taken over by a private investor and work began on adapting the facility to open as a tourist attraction. The mine was eventually opened in 2018.

The site, due to its short distance from the Polish-Czech border, is visited relatively often by Polish divers.

Photo: Czech Fire Brigade from Zulov (Hasiči Žulová)