Underground Cafeterias Save Miners in Fire

Fire broke out in a copper mine 2,000 feet underground, filling tunnels with thick black smoke and killing one man and injuring another today, but rescuers said 46 other miners were found safe in underground cafeterias.

Six other men had already fled the mine in Murdochville, Quebec, about 530 miles northeast of Montreal, without the aid of rescuers.

“The fire is still burning,” said Noranda Mines spokeswoman Susan Lewis in Toronto. “They’ll be moving people if it’s safe.”

Lewis said 29 miners were sealed off from the fire, which broke out at the Gaspe Copper Mines on Wednesday night, in a lunchroom about 2,000 feet underground. Rescuers made their way to the men but decided not to bring them to the surface until the dense toxic smoke cleared, she said.

Others Located Elsewhere

Seventeen other miners who were unaccounted for because of a breakdown in radio communications later were located by rescuers in various lunchrooms about 1,700 feet underground, Lewis said.

“They slowly worked their way through the mine to find the others,” she said. “They found them, they are safe and they’re going to get them out.”

The men were in no danger and had water and fresh air, she said.

Search crews recovered the body of the dead miner early today and pulled out another miner, who was hospitalized with unspecified injuries.