Miners safe as explosion hits US mine

Methane gas exploded today in a coal mine in Alabama that had recently undergone a court-ordered inspection, but all miners got out safely, a federal mine safety official said.

The explosion was at the Shoal Creek Mine, about 45 miles west of Birmingham and operated by Drummond Co., said Dirk Filpott, spokesman for the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

He said all the miners were “successfully withdrawn” within two hours.

The company said the explosion was caused by ignition of methane gas near a rock face where a longwall machine mines coal.

The statement did not say how many miners were underground at the time, but said everyone was evacuated.

The Shoal Creek Mine was among more than a dozen Alabama mines put through court-ordered safety inspections since late January, after the United Mine Workers of America filed suit alleging lax state oversight.

The state said its inspection at Shoal Creek was incomplete because of time constraints, and supervisor Michael Skates said it was too early to tell whether the explosion was in an inspected area.

“Right now they’re in the process of assessing the situation, seeing what kind of damage they have, and when can they go back down,” said Skates, director of the Mining and Reclamation Division of the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.

The company describes the coal mine as Alabama’s biggest and one of the nation’s largest.

It averaged 820 employees last year and produced 2.2 million tons of coal.