Colorado coal pile slide buries 2 workers; search underway
A search is on in southern Colorado for two workers who were buried in a coal pile
PUEBLO, Colo. — Two workers at a southern Colorado coal-fired electricity generating plant were buried Thursday when a slide happened on an 80-foot-high (24-meter-high) coal pile and rescuers were trying to find them, officials said.
Witnesses said the workers were buried Thursday morning in the slide at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, said Erik Duran, spokesman for the Pueblo Fire Department.
A rescue team arrived at the plant 10 minutes later and launched the search but had not made contact with the workers by early Thursday afternoon, Duran said.
Two helicopters were at the site, prepared to take victims needing medical care to a hospital, he said.
Witnesses reported that the accident happened on a feeder pile for the station’s coal-fired power plant, which is Colorado’s largest and is operated by Xcel Energy.
Xcel spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said the workers are employed by Savage, a Salt Lake City-based firm contracted by Xcel to operate and maintain the coal yard at Comanche and at other Xcel coal plants.
Xcel is working with Savage and the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Department to determine the cause of the accident, Nygard said.
