Page 20 Page 18 Contd from Pg 16 rectly The levels of oxygen in the mine was declining and carbon monoxide increasing On Sunday April 27 it was decided that fghting the fre underground was futile Instead a decision was made to pump water down shaft no 4 in order to extinguish the fre 325 gallons of water per minute was poured into the shaft The fre was eventually put out Over the frst three weeks in May the water was pumped out of the mine and the air vents reopened The bodies of the trapped miners were recovered on June 2526 and July 8 from the 1 1th level of the mine The East Malartic Mine Fire was the only time Ontario Mine Res cue responded to an emergency in an other province Mine Res cue teams from T immins Kirkland Lake and Sudbury responded to a call to help fght a mine fre in Ma lartic Quebec The experience marked a major turning point in the evolution of the Ontario Mine Rescue Changes were made to the way mine rescue operate d in Ontario Each mine woul d now have fully equippe d and trained mine rescue substations that would be able to respond within 15 minutes of an emergency Another improvement oc curred becau se the mine rescue teams from Kirklan d Lake Sudbur y and T immin s were observed in action As the teams were engaged in rescue eforts it became evident each district had diferent training and main tenance standards In a presentation on the his tory of mine rescue in On tario T ed Hanley the V P of Ontario Mine Rescue calle d the experienc e of the Ma lartic Fire response a major turning point in the development of how mine rescuers were to be trained The need to maintain mine rescue standardization was made very clear after the East Malartic Fire The Ontario mine rescue teams from T immins Kirkland and Sud bury responding to the fre all had deviated from Ontario mine res cue policy The main lesson learned from the engagement of the T immins Kirkland Lake and Sudbury Mine rescue teams was that standard ized training and equipment must be provided Provincewid e stan dards needed to be developed and applied The position of Chief Mine Res cue Ofcer was created to ensure provincewide standards in mine rescue training and equipment maintenance were established and implemented The move to ensure province wide standards led to the creation of the Ontario Mine Rescue Com petitions in 1949 The frst com petitions were held in T immins in 1950 This year marks the 70 anniver sary of Ontario Mine Rescue com petitions For seventy years mine rescue teams from Ontario mines have been drilled in competitive exercises to evaluate how the teams measured to Ontario mine rescue standards Photo T oronto Star Archives 1947 Malartic Mine Rescue Photo from T oronto Star Archives Last of the eight caskets from East Malartic Mine Fire being carried to the waiting trucks which took the victims to their last resting place