WAIHI MINE FIRE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 70, 22 March 1918, Page 10

WAIHI MINE FIRE

NOT YET EXTINGUISHED.

BUT NO CAUSE FOR ALARM.

(IT TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

WAIHI, 21st March.

The fire in the Waihi Mine has not yet been extinguished, and it is probable that the timber in the small area affected will continue to smoulder for some little timo, preventing full resumption of mining operations for perhaps three or four days. Tho fire, however, has been confined to a section of the mine with a length of about 170 feet on the east end of the-Martha reef, and there is not the slightest prospect of its extension to the other portions of the level at which it occurred or to the j-workings above or below that level. This means that when.the affected area again resumes normal, the company can, at trifling expense, regain ore-winning point. Meanwhile the quantity of stone at Waikano is sufficient to. enable the mill to x be carried on as usual, and there is no reason to anticipate any appreciable reduction in the monthly gold output. Clearly in these circumstances there need be no cause for alarm.

It is not an uncommon thing that a deadly gas known as carbon monoxide follows fires in confined areas in a mine, and although it is considered improbaiWe in this case precautions have been taken to 'combat such a happening.' At.: the instance of the mining inspector caged canaries have been placed at several-i points adjacent to the fire. These birds, it is understood, are peculiarly sensitive to the presence of the gas, and on its first appearance a drooping of the wings of the birds is.noticeable. This indication, should it come, ■would* give all the workers employed in connection with the extinction of the fire ample, time to reach a point of safety.