From The Citizens Voice
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ ... TE=DEFAULT
Explosion at Pa. Coal Mine Kills 1
TREMONT, Pa. (AP) -- A coal mine explosion killed a Pennsylvania miner Monday, but four others were able to escape, 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 attempting to determine the cause, he said.
Four other 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.
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.