Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 6:30 p.m., an 11-story coal mine came crumbling down in eastern Ky., encasing two workers within the rubble. The building was constructed of concrete and steel, making for a disastrous accident at the Martin Mine Prep Plant with the workers involved in the incident in the midst of preparing the building for demolition.

The building, before the incident, had been obsolete for numerous years. The article by the website Independent shared that state governor Andy Beshear said one worker, James D. Brown, passed before rescuers could extricate him from the accident site. The governor gave this update on Nov. 1. The Ky. state police claimed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has planned to conduct an investigation as to why the building gave way, but for now, people are just working on rescuing the other worker. 

The director of Kentucky Emergency Management Jeremy Slinker said that efforts to rescue the trapped workers would continue throughout Wednesday, with hope still alive amongst those working. A Martin County sheriff, John Kirk, shared some details about the workers and how they did their job of preparing the building for demolition, “Mr. Kirk said workers had spent the past eight months tearing down the facility section by section.” The sheriff would share that, “They typically take these down in sections. They fall them, you know, cut torch and fall them in section”. He would continue on, guessing that the building didn’t fall correctly, closing around the workers instead of away from them. 

The article written by the Associated Press said Kirk expressed his feeling “helpless” since he couldn’t do much else to aid in the rescue of the workers, but that “It’s a very slow process in order to try and keep everybody safe…If you pray, pray for these people”.