The incident happened at about 8:40 a.m. at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo, fire spokesman Erik Duran said. A 911 caller reported that multiple people were trapped in coal “following a landslide,” he said.
At about 4:30 p.m. the bodies of two men, one in his 20s and the other in his 30s, were recovered from “beneath 60-feet of coal,” Duran said.
The Pueblo County Coroner’s Office has taken possession of the bodies. Their identities will be released at a later time.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and their co-workers,” Duran said.
A rescue team arrived at the plant within 10 minutes of being notified and began working to free the two reported victims, Duran said. That rescue attempt was ongoing at 12:45 p.m. There was no communication between rescuers and the people trapped.
The plant is owned and operated by Xcel Energy, but the two people believed to be buried are employees of Savage, a company that contracts with Xcel to operate the coal yard at the plant, Xcel spokeswoman Lacey Nygard said.
“Savage has served as a long-term contractor partner that operates and maintains the coal yard at Comanche and our other coal plants,” she said in an email. “Savage manages all of the onsite operations; hiring, training and maintaining staff and equipment and coal operations at the Comanche plant coal yard.”
Jeff Hymas, a spokesman for Savage, confirmed that two Savage employees were trapped and said the incident happened around 8:20 a.m., adding in a statement that employees immediately launched rescue efforts.
“We appreciate the rapid response of the local emergency agencies and Xcel Energy’s assistance,” he said the statement.
Nygard added that she believes the incident happened inside the coal yard; Duran said it occurred at an outdoor “feeder pile” for the furnaces.
The coal pile is made up of a combination of lumps of coal and finer, more gravel or dust-like particles, Duran said, adding that both suffocation and crushing were a concern.
Earlier this year, Xcel Energy agreed to close the coal-fired power plant, which has long-standing mechanical and operational problems, by the beginning of 2031 as part of a deal between the company, businesses, environmental organizations and several local governments.
