CANNOT DROWN FIRES.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 698, 20 October 1909, Page 6

CANNOT DROWN FIRES.

J)lfflo«IU»i at < militating- "Tiffajr tlon. In D«ep Oo*i Mines. & * Fighting fires deep down in coal mines is a task to put the heroism of the bravest to the test. In an interesting article on the subject in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, the author tells how at Plymouth, a large tow.: in the Wyoming valley, a big mine caught fire from the burning of >i breaker. Some blazing timbers feM down the shaft, setting it on fireman: preventing entrance to the mine. Tit • fire burned in the shaft and spread downward ami Inward. !n this case there was but one tiling to be done. Great pumps.were erected, and. the river being near, water was poured into The mine for months, until it was flooded to the bottom of tfc • shaft. Tli. n ihe water was allowed to remain for some weeks, until, in the opinion of tire officials, it had reached every nook and cranny oi i):.- mine where tire could have lodged.' Then ihe weary work of pumping ii out commenced. It took five months of constant effort by the mtinster ptuiips. A couple of months* more work was needed to make repairs, and then i; was discovered that a large fire burned in the mine, many feet below the level the water had reached. This was due to the air and gases, generated l»y the fire, holdlt; ' back the flood of wafer, a monster cushion of compressed air and gas. Vent holes had to be bored from the surface to remove this, and the weary work of flooding was begun again. It was tvo y»-ars before the mine was in eont'tion to resume operations.