Mar 21, 2013 3 min read

Consol Energy believes it has extinguished an underground fire that started 10 days ago in its Blacksville No. 2 Mine in southern Greene County.

The company has pumped enough water through boreholes from the surface into the mine to complete a water seal, which has achieved the expected result of dampening the fire, said Lynn Seay, company spokeswoman, in an email Thursday.

“Analysis of the continuous mine atmosphere readings that the team has been taking indicates that gas levels remain steady and oxygen levels continue to decrease. As a result, Consol Energy believes the fire has been successfully extinguished,” she said.

The company has developed a plan for mine rescue workers to enter the mine to inspect the affected area, a plan that was being reviewed Thursday by officials of state and federal mine safety agencies and the United Mine Workers union, which represents mine employees.

As a precaution, the company will continue efforts to ensure the mine has been fully sealed. The mine’s atmosphere will continue to be monitored during the weekend to determine when it is safe to re-enter the mine, Seay said.

The company Thursday continued efforts to construct “isolation walls” in mine tunnels around the affected area to seal it off from the rest of the mine.

A material used to create the walls was pumped into two boreholes Wednesday night and work was being completed Thursday to begin pumping the material into a third borehole. The company is injecting a material called rocksil through the boreholes to create temporary seals in the mine tunnels, said Jesse Lawder of the U.S. Department of Labor

“Once (the atmosphere in) the sealed area is inert, rescue teams could possibly enter the underground area sometime next week to evaluate the area,” he said late Wednesday.

Six of the eight boreholes that will be used to create the isolation walls have been completed from the surface; the seventh was being drilled Thursday and was nearing completion, Seay said. Drilling sites also have been prepared near the mine’s Kuhntown portal off Oak Forest Road in case additional boreholes are needed in that area, she said.

The fire was discovered March 12 when smoke was detected coming from the mine’s Orndoff shaft on King Sister Hill Road 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, the company said.

The company began pumping water into the mine through an existing borehole near the Orndoff shaft and has drilled a number of other boreholes to pump water and inject nitrogen underground into the affected area. Boreholes also are being used to monitor the mine atmosphere. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

As the mine remains idle, the mine’s 600 mine employees are being notified they are eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. Their current benefit plan remains in effect, Seay said.

Consol has been working closely with officials from the Mine, Safety and Health Administration, West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training and the UMW to extinguish the fire. The company said it hopes employees can return to work as soon as possible.