Mar 20, 2013 2 min read

Consol Energy continued efforts Wednesday to extinguish an underground fire that broke out March 12 at its Blacksville No. 2 Mine in southern Greene County.

The company previously drilled a number of boreholes from the surface into the mine and has been pumping water into the mine to create a water seal from floor to roof and to inject nitrogen, which depletes the oxygen needed for the fire to burn.

On Wednesday, it was preparing to begin injecting nitrogen into a second borehole, said company spokeswoman Lynn Seay in an email update. The company also continued to pump water into two boreholes, one believed to be directly over the fire.

Consol also has completed six of the eight boreholes that are expected to be needed to create “isolation walls” to seal the section of the mine where the fire is burning from the rest of the mine.

The company expected to begin pumping materials to create the isolation walls Wednesday afternoon, Seay said.

The fire was discovered March 12 when smoke was detected coming from the mine’s Orndoff shaft in Wayne Township. All 121 underground employees were safely evacuated from the nearby Kuhntown portal. The section of the mine affected by the fire is not an active working section of the mine.

Consol said its efforts to extinguish the fire will continue around the clock. No personnel will re-enter the mine until it is determined that it is safe to do so, the company said. Others participating in the effort include the Mine Safety and Health Administration, West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training and the United Mine Workers union, which represents the mine’s workforce.