Rescuers Find Bodies of Both Maryland Miners
The bodies of two miners missing since Tuesday morning at Tri-Star Mining Inc.'s open pit coal mine in Barton, Md., were found Friday afternoon by rescuers digging through the rubble of a rock highwall that had fallen onto the bulldozer and backhoe they were operating. Both men, who were not identified pending complete notification of relatives, were found in their crushed vehicles, Maryland newspapers reported.
Instability of the pile created by the wall's collapse had slowed the search. MSHA says the wall was 100 to 125 feet high before it fell.
These are the first Maryland coal mining fatalities of 2007 and only the fourth in the state in the past 12 years, according to data on MSHA's Web site.