The victim was Dale Reightler, 43, of Donaldson, according to his brother-in-law Charles Kimmel.
Reightler, who had worked the mines since the age of 16, left behind a wife and four children.
The blast occurred at R&D Coal Company’s Buck Mountain anthracite mine in Schuylkill County, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said.
“The cause of the accident has not been determined. Inspectors from DEP’s Bureau of Mine Safety and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration are on the scene and in the mine conducting an investigation,” the DEP said.
The DEP said anthracite mines in Pennsylvania are inspected every two months by DEP mine inspectors and twice a year by the department’s electrical inspectors, while MSHA inspects anthracite mines quarterly.
The accident brings the US coal mine death toll to 42 this year, after a West Virginian coal miner was killed last week.
