A mineworker has died in an accident at the Arch Coal Mining operated Wolf Run Sentinel Mine in Barbour County, West Virginia, on Tuesday 6 February 2018. Leonard Griffith, 52, of Valley Bend in Randolph County, an electrician employed at the mine for slightly over three years, was working on a machine when he was caught in a partial collapse, at about 3.55 am local time.
The approximate location of the Wolf Run Sentinel Mine. Google Maps.
The incident has been described as a rib roll, a partial collapse around a pillar. Pillars are left as supporting structures as miners clear galleries. However as the mine grows, the load on each pillar can become to much, leading to collapses around the pillars as sections of the pillar known as ribs crack and come away, a process known in the industry as rib-rolling.
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