Explosion kills 1 in eastern Pennsylvania coal mine; 4 others escape, officials say

TREMONT, Pa. — A coal mine explosion killed a miner Monday, but four others escaped, authorities said.

The blast happened at the R&D Coal Co. anthracite mine in Schuylkill County, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

"We have one confirmed fatality," said Kurt Knaus, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. "I believe it is a recovery and not a rescue operation."

State and federal investigators were trying to determine the cause, he said. Regulators ordered the mine closed until an investigation is complete.

Four miners who were underground at the time were able to get out, said Kate Dugan, a spokeswoman for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Four workers at the mine were injured Dec. 1, 2004, by debris from an explosion caused by a pipe with a faulty gauge, state officials said. The mine reopened after installing safety equipment, and two inspections this year turned up no significant violations, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The victim's neighbors were taking food to his family's home in the tightly knit mining community in a remote, mountainous area, neighbor Diana Carra said.

"The folks here really take care of each other," she said.

Eastern Pennsylvania has the nation's only deposits of anthracite, a type of hard, relatively clean-burning coal that once heated millions of homes but now represents a tiny sliver of the U.S. coal industry. The mines still operating are typically small, with only a few miners.

So far this year, there have been 41 other deaths in U.S. coal-mine accidents, none in Pennsylvania. In the deadliest accident, 12 men were killed at the Sago Mine in northern West Virginia in January.