MELLVILLE, W.Va. – A fire erupted in an underground coal mine in southern West Virginia late Thursday and two workers were unaccounted for, authorities said.
The fire was reported at the Aracoma Coal Co. in Mellville, about 60 miles southwest of Charleston.
Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for Gov. Joe Manchin, said the blaze apparently began on a conveyer belt that moves coal from the mine to the surface. She did not have any other information.
State police said they were responding to an incident at the mine but would not give any other details.
A man who answered the telephone at Aracoma Coal's Mellville office hung up.
The blaze occurred less than three weeks after an explosion at the Sago Mine in Upshur County killed 12 members.
The sole survivor of that blast, Randal McCloy Jr., 26, remained hospitalized in a light coma at a hospital in Morgantown.
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