Officials were drilling a 6-inch (15-cm) hole 200 feet (60 meters) into the mine in hopes of making contact with the lost miners, Reuters correspondent Juliet Terry reports from Charlestone, West Virginia.

The drill had already bored through 130 feet of ground. Officials must make some repairs to the drill rig before it resumes operations tonight, Jesse Cole of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, told a televised news conference late on Friday.

"After we drill it down, we'll use the drill steel to pound and attempt to get signals back if there is anyone underground in that area. After we signal for three times and if we don't get a response, we'll pull the drill steel out and drop a camera and microphone into the hole," Cole said.

The two missing miners were thought to be trapped about 10,000 feet into the mine, about 900 feet (275 meters) below the surface after a fire at the Aracoma Mine in Melville, West Virginia, late on Thursday afternoon, state officials said.

Nineteen miners escaped the fire. 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," Doug Conaway, director of the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, told a news conference. The fire started on a conveyor belt and set off a fire alarm about 5:45 p.m on Thursday, Conaway said. He said late on Friday that smoky conditions where the trapped miners were last seen were clearing.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin told reporters late on Friday that "the odds are not in our favor."

He added that two widows from the explosion at the Sago mine in central West Virginia earlier this month that killed 12 miners came to lend their support to families of the missing miners.

The Aracoma Mine in Melville is owned by Aracoma Coal Co., a subsidiary of Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., according to a U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data base. Massey's Web site says it is the fourth-largest U.S. coal company by revenue.

The accident came just weeks after the Sago disaster. The only survivor, 26-year-old Randal McCloy, has been hospitalized since, having survived nearly 42 hours underground following a blast.