Mine blaze workers trapped, but safe, in Canada

Seventy Canadian miners remained trapped but safe today, after a fire broke out, forcing them to retreat to emergency refuge rooms stocked with oxygen and supplies.

A rescue team reached one of the rooms early today, made sure everyone was safe, then closed them back inside until the air inside the mine could be cleared of toxic gases, said Marshall Hamilton, a spokesman for Mosaic Company, the Minneapolis-based firm that operates the potash mine.

“In those refuge stations, they can seal themselves off and there’s oxygen, food and water,” Hamilton told CBC Radio. “They can stay in there for at least 36 hours.”

Hamilton said the fire broke out at around 3am local time yesterday nearly a mile underground in the province of Saskatchewan. The miners reported smoke and quickly headed for the safe refuge rooms.

Hamilton said company officials could not establish a radio link with 30 of the miners but a team was able to enter one of the rooms and talk to the workers.

“I won’t kid you, there was a lot of relief in that,” Hamilton said.

He said the rescue team took a roll call of all the miners, checked their health and then helped them seal up the room again before leaving.

Hamilton said they believed they had found the source of the smoke and were working on extinguishing the fire. He said the mine would be cleared of smoke and toxic gas before miners were evacuated, adding: “We’d rather do this safely than quickly. We’ll go get them when we’re absolutely confident that the fire is out and the smoke and the toxic gases that are associated with fires have left our operations and the air is safe for them to breathe.

“They’re safe where they are, they’re safe in there for many, many hours, potentially even days.”

He said some of the miners’ families had gathered at the mine.

“They’re a little bit tired. They’re a little bit anxious. They have confidence that we’ve going to safely bring them up,” he said. Nevertheless, they’d like to see them sooner rather than later.”

Potash is a pinkish-grey mineral used in the production of agricultural fertiliser.

The mine, which was Saskatchewan’s first potash operation when it opened in 1962, is near Esterhazy, about 130 miles north east of Regina.