Rescue teams searched smoky coal mine tunnels yesterday for two miners missing after a fire broke out at a mine in West Virginia, where an accident at another mine three weeks ago killed 12 people.

Nineteen miners escaped the fire at the Aracoma Mine in Melville late on Thursday afternoon, state officials said.

Doug Conaway, director of the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, said the fire alarm was raised around 5.45 p.m.

The two missing men were part of a crew of 12 who stopped their vehicle to put on breathing equipment before heading out of the mine. Ten miners from that group and another group of nine escaped.

"For some reason the other two fell behind," Mr Conaway told a news conference. He said the fire, which started on a conveyor belt, was still burning as rescue teams worked.

"The mine rescue teams are having a very difficult time with visibility. There's two to three feet (less than a metre) of visibility," Conaway said at another news briefing later in the morning.

He added, however, that there were still large areas of the mine to be explored, areas that may not be so smoky. The two were thought to be trapped around 3,000 metres into the mine, about 275 metres below the surface.

The Aracoma Mine in Melville is owned by Aracoma Coal Co., a subsidiary of Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., according to a US mine safety and health administration data base. Massey's website says it is the fourth-largest US coal company by revenue.

The accident came just weeks after 12 miners died in the Sago mine in central West Virginia. The only survivor, 26-year-old Randal McCloy, has been hospitalised since, having survived nearly 42 hours underground following a blast.

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