Six Trapped After Utah Earthquake Collapses Coal Mine

by phrolen | August 6, 2007 at 08:02 am

674 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Breaking news from Utah...6 miners have been trapped in an underground coal mine shortly after a magnitude 4.0 earthquake caused a collapse. Emery County Sheriff rescue workers are rushing to free the trapped miners. Developing.........

OXNEWS.COM HOME > U.S.

Six Trapped After Utah Earthquake Collapses Coal Mine

Monday, August 06, 2007

* E-MAIL STORY

* PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION

HUNTINGTON, Utah — A coal mine in Utah collapsed Monday, trapping six miners shortly after a magnitude 4.0 earthquake that was centered less than 20 miles away, the Emery County sheriff said.

"Rescue workers are on scene trying to locate six miners that are unaccounted for," the sheriff's office said.

Click here to watch video at MyFoxUtah.com.

Rocky Mountain Power, which owns a different coal mine nearby, sent a rescue team and heavy equipment, spokesman Dave Eskelsen said.

The earthquake occurred at 2:48 a.m., and a "short time later we received information about the cave-in at Genwal mine," Sheriff Lamar Guymon told KSL radio in Salt Lake City.

A command center was being set up in Huntington, about 15 miles from the mine, said Teresa Behunin, an accountant affiliated with the mine.

She had no other details.

The sheriff's office had said earlier there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries blamed on the quake, centered under the Huntington Canyon area, about 100 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.