US coal mine collapse traps six

Six miners in the US were trapped tonight after a coal mine caved in.

The collapse near Huntington, Utah, was so powerful that authorities initially thought it was small earthquake.

The miners were believed to be 1,500 feet below ground, about four miles from the entrance to the mine, which is 140 miles south of Salt Lake City.

University of Utah seismograph stations recorded a seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude early today, causing speculation that a minor earthquake had caused the cave-in. Scientists later realised the collapse at the Genwal mine had caused the disturbance.

“There is no evidence that an earthquake triggered the mine collapse,” said Walter Arabasz, director of the seismography stations.

At least a half-dozen other mine collapses since 1995 have caused similar seismic waves, including one in south-western Wyoming that caused readings as high as 5.4 on the Richter scale.

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

There has been no contact with them, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesman at the Mine Safety and Health Administration in Washington.

A command centre was being set up in Huntington said Teresa Behunin, an accountant with Utah American Energy, which owns the mine. She had no other details.

Rocky Mountain Power, a utility firm with a power plant in the area, sent a rescue team and heavy equipment to the mine.

“We aren’t panicked yet,” Linda Jewkes, president of the Emery County Chamber of Commerce, said after hearing the news. “We’re very, very concerned and very cautious when it comes to the mines.”

Utah ranked 12th in coal production last year. It had 13 underground coal mines in 2005, the most recent statistics available, according to the Utah Geological Survey.

Emery County, the state’s number two coal-producer, also was the site of a fire that killed 27 people in the Wilburg mine in December 1984.