[Batpuff]

Two West Virginia Miners Unaccounted For After Fire
Jan 20, 2006, 12:48 AM EST


MELLVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - A fire broke out 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.
Jeff Gillenwater, a spokesman for the mine's owner, Richmond,
Va.-based Massey Energy, said the blaze began on a conveyer belt
inside the mine and the mine itself was not on fire.
"It is not a raging fire. It is a belt line fire that caused
smoke in the coal mine," Gillenwater told The Logan Banner
newspaper. "There are two individuals we are currently trying to
find in the coal mine."
Gillenwater said there is clean air in several sections of the
mine. "These two guys know this coal mine well, and we're just
hopeful mine rescue finds them quickly," he said.
The fire was reported to Logan County's emergency center at 8:05
p.m. and appears to be about 10,000 feet inside the mine, said Doug
Conaway, director of the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and
Training.
Four rescue teams had entered the mine and two were heading to
the mine, he said. Gov. Joe Manchin also was at the mine site early
Friday.
"All resources are either at the mine or on their way to the
mine site," said Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for the governor.
The blaze occurred less than three weeks after an explosion at
the International Coal Group's Sago Mine in Upshur County killed 12
miners.
The sole survivor of that blast, Randal McCloy Jr., 26, remained
hospitalized Friday in a light coma at a hospital in Morgantown.