HARLAN, Ky. — A coal miner has been killed and two more injured in an apparent wall collapse in an underground eastern Kentucky mine.
State officials said the workers were inside a Harlan County mine operating a continuous miner machine Tuesday and became trapped when a wall apparently collapsed.
The collapse at Huff Creek Mine No. 1 fatally injured 56-year-old Lenny D. Gilliam, of Appalachia, Va. The death was the second mining-related fatality in Kentucky this year.
The Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing said the incident was reported around noon EDT at the mine near Holmes Mill on Black Mountain in Harlan County. The injured workers were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The mine is operated by Lone Mountain Processing, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Arch Coal.
