Union: 2 miners missing underground at western Ky. coal mine after ceiling collapse

Union: 2 missing in Ky. coal mine rock fall

PROVIDENCE, Ky. — Two coal miners were missing after an underground rock fall in western Kentucky early Thursday, a union representative said.

Tim Miller from the United Mine Workers Union said at least two others escaped when a ceiling collapsed at the Dotiki mine near Providence, about 150 miles west of Louisville. Miller described it as a large underground coal mine.

Calls to mine operator Alliance Coal Company were not immediately answered.

Miller said he was called around 6 a.m. by a woman who had received a call from the mine. The woman said she was told her husband and her son, who were working in the mine, were safe, but that two other miners were missing.

Miller described a rock fall as a ceiling collapse, usually in an isolated area.

He said the Dotiki Mine is a large operation that employs more than 300 miners.