RTBF Uses AI to Reconstruct First Hours of 1956 Bois du Cazier Mining Disaster
Belgium’s French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF has used generative artificial intelligence for the first time to reconstruct the first hours of the Bois du Cazier mining disaster of August 8, 1956, which claimed 262 lives. The six-minute visual sequence, announced on July 31, retraces the events minute by minute and will be broadcast on August 7 in RTBF’s television news programs, ahead of the 70th anniversary commemorations.
The Disaster
On the morning of August 8, 1956, a fire broke out in the Bois du Cazier coal mine in Marcinelle, near Charleroi. An accident occurred when the hoist mechanism was started before a coal wagon had been correctly loaded into the lift cage. Electric cables ruptured, starting an underground fire within the shaft. The moving cage also ruptured oil and air pipes, making the fire worse and destroying much of the winch mechanism. Smoke and carbon monoxide spread down the mine, killing all the miners trapped by the fire, according to Wikipedia.
Of the 274 people working underground that morning, only 12 survived. The victims included 136 Italians, 95 Belgians, 8 Poles, 6 Greeks, 5 Germans, 5 Frenchmen, 3 Hungarians, 1 Englishman, 1 Dutchman, 1 Russian, and 1 Ukrainian. The disaster remains one of the largest and most notorious mining accidents in Belgian history.
The AI Reconstruction
No animated image documents the events that occurred at the bottom of the mine that morning. For the first time, RTBF used generative artificial intelligence to produce a visual reconstruction based on available historical sources, as RTBF reported. The sequence retraces the catastrophe minute by minute, from the descent of the miners to the outbreak of the fire, from the first rescue attempts to the discovery of survivors.
“Six minutes at the bottom of the mine, so as not to forget,” the broadcaster said.
The AI-generated images are clearly identified as reconstructions, so no confusion is possible with authentic archives. All photos produced in the article also clearly indicate they were generated by artificial intelligence.
Human Editorial Control
The investigation, writing, direction, editing, and narration were handled by RTBF’s editorial team. The voice-over is by the journalist who conducted the investigation. AI was used as a tool for image generation only.
“Artificial intelligence was used as a tool for generating images. When sources did not allow precise determination of a setting, attitude, or visual detail, those were subject to framed interpretation, consistent with available historical knowledge. No facts or fictional characters were added to the narrative,” RTBF stated.
The narrative relies exclusively on authentic archival documents: survivor testimonies, original manuscripts, the investigation commission report, and photographic archives. The Bois du Cazier archive center made its iconographic and historical sources available for this project.
70th Anniversary Commemorations
The reconstruction is part of the 70th anniversary commemorations of the disaster. The Bois du Cazier site has prepared an exceptional program for 2026, marking both the 70th anniversary of the disaster and the 80th anniversary of the June 23, 1946 Belgian-Italian agreement (the “men for coal” protocol) that brought Italian miners to Belgium.
RTBF La Une is dedicating a special evening on August 7, featuring the film Marina (2013) by Stijn Coninx about Rocco Granata’s youth as an Italian immigrant in Belgian mines, the documentary Les inconnus du Bois du Cazier about the identification project, and the theater piece Cincali by Herve Guerrisi, as RTBF detailed.
Italian political figures confirmed to attend include Senate President Ignazio La Russa, State Secretary Marcello Dell’Utri, and Labour Minister Marina Elvira Calderone. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be absent, as RTBF reported.
The Identification Project
Since 2019, an unprecedented project has been underway to identify the 14 victims of the disaster whose bodies were never identified. Initiated by Michele Cicora, son of victim Francesco Cicora, the project involved exhuming the unidentified bodies from the Marcinelle cemetery and using modern DNA identification techniques, as RTBF reported.
As of May 2026, six victims have been identified: Oscar Pellegrims (2022), Dante Di Quillo and Rocco Ceccomancini (2024), Reinhold Heller (2025), and Pietro Basso and Secondo Petronio (2026). Only 8 of the original 14 unidentified victims remain anonymous, according to VRT NWS.
The identification work has been conducted by the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (INCC), along with anthropologists, odontologists, and forensic specialists who volunteered their services.
Analysis: AI as a Tool for Historical Memory
The RTBF project represents a significant experiment in using generative AI for historical reconstruction. It explores the capacity of these tools to make accessible events that were impossible to film, while applying principles of transparency, editorial control, and source traceability.
As Moustique noted, at nearly 975 meters depth, a communication error between the bottom and the surface caused a cage-loading incident, and no filmed image bears witness to what happened underground that morning. The AI reconstruction fills this visual gap while maintaining rigorous editorial standards.
What’s Next
The AI reconstruction will be broadcast on August 7 in RTBF’s television news programs, then made available on RTBF Auvio and RTBF Actus. The 70th anniversary commemorations at Bois du Cazier will take place on August 8, 2026, bringing together Belgian and Italian officials, families of victims, and descendants of the miners who perished in one of Europe’s most tragic industrial accidents.
As Bois du Cazier officials noted, these two anniversaries “tell the same story: that of work, exile, sacrifice, and solidarity.”