Remembering the Mining Tragedy: Kakanj is a City of Solidarity and Unity

KAKANJ, (Patria) - In the hundred-year history of the Kakanj Mine, three major mining accidents occurred in which a total of 274 miners died. 

Two in the "Old Pit": in 1916 (19 dead) and 1934 (127 dead), and one in the "Orasi" pit in 1965 (128 dead).

On June 7, 1965, around noon, a powerful methane explosion occurred in the "Orasi" pit of the Kakanj Mine, killing 128 miners, seriously or lightly injuring 20, while 88 managed to save themselves.

The miners who first entered as a rescue team found 14 miners sitting in a room. Overjoyed, they rushed towards them, only to discover that they had been suffocated by carbon monoxide and that death had left them in those positions.

One of the engineers urgently requested the removal of miners who were still showing signs of life. Members of the rescue squad carried them out of the pit. Thus, twenty miners were saved.

The deceased miners left behind 421 children. Someone then proposed an initiative to establish a fund to help the children who had lost their fathers. Thus, the "June 7, 1965 Fund" was founded. All miners contributed part of their wages to the fund for the children of their fallen friends.

Through this fund, the people of Kakanj educated exceptional personnel, who later participated in the great development of the city. With the help of the Fund, Kakanj educated doctors, pharmacists, engineers, and produced dozens of successful people, children.

Over time, the Fund included all children of miners killed even before the horrific accident. It was never dissolved and still helps with the education of a smaller number of children. In Kakanj, through unity and solidarity, they overcame the greatest mining tragedy in the history of their city.

In the war of liberation in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, 64 miners of the Kakanj Mine were killed, and 69 became war military invalids.