Apartment falls into mine shaft

GALENA, Kan. -- A Kansas couple woke up Monday to the sound of falling rocks hitting their windows and quickly realized their apartment was falling into abandoned mine shaft.

Galena, Kan., city officials confirmed occupants were living in an apartment located in the rear of the Green Parrot Bar when it began to fall piece by piece into the sinkhole around 7 a.m.

“When they checked out the noise, they realized the building was falling in ,” said Meredith Shetley, assistant city clerk.

“Fortunately, there were no injuries,” said David Black, Galena Police administrative assistant. “Workers spent the morning shutting off gas and telephone lines.”

Black said the bar was an active business just off Main Street. Authorities evacuated residences and businesses in a two-block radius of the bar.

Galena, a zinc and lead mining community, is part of the Cherokee County, Kan., Superfund site, which spans 115 square miles and represents the Kansas portion of the former Tri-State Mining District. Galena is about 15 miles from Picher, OK., which is in the Tar Creek Superfund site and has had its own problems with cave-ins.