2 Men Trapped After Collapse at Kentucky Coal Plant

Two men were trapped on Wednesday morning after a structure collapsed at a coal preparation plant in eastern Kentucky on Tuesday evening.

The structure, a 12-story coal tipple, which is used to load coal for transport, was being dismantled by the workers when it collapsed, reported The Mountain Citizen, a newspaper in Martin County. The men were on the ground floor and were buried under tons of rubble.

Rescuers said that they had made contact with one of the men, but that they were not yet able to free him. Their conditions were not known.

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk told The Mountain Citizen that the effort could take days. The authorities would not speculate about the cause of the collapse.

“They all have one goal and they’re all risking their lives,” Sheriff Kirk said of the rescuers. “Unless you see for yourself what the scene entails, you cannot understand the danger involved in this recovery.”

Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in the county on Wednesday and said on X, formerly Twitter, “The scene is bad, and we should be prepared for tough news out of Martin County.”

“Two workers are trapped inside and a number of teams are working to rescue these individuals,” he said. “The order mobilizes state resources to help.”