MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) – Crews on Sunday waited for a smoldering fire to die out inside a 100-story-high power plant smokestack so they could search for the body of a worker presumed dead inside.

“All indications are it is a fatality,” Marshall County Sheriff John Gruzinskas said Sunday. The victim’s name was being withheld until his body is found, although police spoke to his wife Saturday night.

“She has two small children and is seven months pregnant,” Gruzinskas said. “We are working to get counseling for her.”

The worker was one of several installing a fiberglass lining inside the concrete stack when the fire broke out Saturday. Three other workers at the top of the stack were trapped for two hours above the flames before a dramatic helicopter rescue.

“They were able to get on top of the stack and able to secure themselves on the side to stay out of the fire,” Gruzinskas said.

Ground crews communicated with the men by radio while awaiting rescue by a Maryland State Police helicopter, which lowered a bucket to lift each worker out individually.

West Virginia authorities requested the helicopter and its crew of trained rescuers, which came about 100 miles from Cumberland, Md.

The rescued workers were identified as David Early, 29, of New Matamoras, Ohio; Jay McDonald, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Timothy Wells, 36, of New Martinsville. McDonald was in good condition Sunday at a Pittsburgh hospital, while Early and Wells were treated and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The cause of the fire had not been determined.

The missing man was one of several who were working inside the 1,000-foot-tall stack at American Electric Power’s Kammer-Mitchell plant, AEP spokeswoman Carmen Prati-Miller said Sunday. The workers are employed by Pullman Power LLC of Kansas City, Mo.

“All but four were able to get out the bottom safely,” she said. Prati-Miller did not know how many workers were in the stack.

Fire officials decided to let the fire burn itself out before trying to enter the stack, said Tom Hart, director of Marshall County Emergency Management.

The coal-fired power plant is south of Moundsville, about 68 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. It is being upgraded to bring the power station into compliance with federal air pollution regulations.

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