Cucumber, W.Va. – Two members of a coal-mining crew removing pillars in a mine died Saturday when a portion of the tunnel collapsed and the men were buried in debris deep underground, authorities said.
None of the other miners in the 35-member crew was injured, said Ted Pile, a spokesman for Alpha Natural Resources, whose subsidiary, Brooks Run Mining, operates the mine.
Pile said the crew was working on a process called retreat mining in which the miners work back toward the entrance extracting coal from the pillars that support the ceiling.
Dispatchers said the accident scene was up to 1 1/2 miles beyond the entrance to the mine, about 90 miles west of Roanoke, Va.
The state mine-safety director, Ron Wooten, said it was unclear whether a pillar or portion of the ceiling collapsed. He had earlier said the miners apparently were caught when a pillar fell.
Wooten, director of the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, said the bodies were taken to a hospital about 11 miles away in Welch. Their identities were not released.
The mine was closed following the fatal incident and would remain closed until regulators allow it to reopen, Pile said.
Additional details weren’t available. Wooten expected to learn more once a team of investigators returned from underground. Federal mine safety investigators were also on the scene.
The federal Mine Safety & Health Administration will work closely with the state to find out the cause, said agency director Richard Stickler.
The Brooks Run mine began operating in 2004. The fatalities were among the first at the mine. In October, a miner was killed in a wall collapse at Alpha’s Whitetail Kittanning Mine in Newburg.
Alpha, based in Abingdon, Va., operates 66 mines in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Nationwide, it employs about 3,500 people, including 118 at the Brooks Run mine.
Federal inspectors cited the Brooks Run mine 65 times last year and proposed penalties totaling $5,000, according to MSHA’s website. The deaths are the first in West Virginia’s coal mines this year and the second and third in the nation. A miner was killed Jan. 6 at the Elk Creek Mine in western Colorado, according to MSHA.
