Page 26 Page 24 Contd on pg 26 By Frank Giorno In 1965 a fre at the McIntyre Mine in Schumacher Ontario raged for nine days before it was fnally extinquished The mine was very deep and that created logistical problems for the mine rescue team tackling the blaze The fre occurred almost a mile deep and a mile from the main entry The fre raged for nine days be tween February 8 and 17 1965 The only fatality during the nine days occurred on the morning of February 8 when the body of a skiptender near Shaft 1 1 was dis covered by the rescurers The frst signs of the fre were re ported in Shaft 15 The fre was at frst believed to be on the 6500 Mine rescue team listens to briefng before being deployed to fght the McIntyre Mine fre in 1965 level A rescue team tried to make its way to fnd the fre but was turned back because of the smoke and heat from the fre The distance needed to travel to the fre the smoke heat given and carbon monoxide CO cre ated challeng es in extinquishing the fre In addition because of the time it took to put out the fre it spread to diferent levels of the mine By February 10 1965 the Mc Intyre Mine Rescue teams were facing exhaustation and a call went out for help from other mine rescue teams Eventually 16 mine rescue teams from T immins Kirk land Lake and Sudbury arrived to help fght the fre around the clock Fresh Air Bases F ABs were es tablished to allow the crews to travel back and forth to the sur face with only a simple N type breathing mask On February 13 foaming ma chines were brought down and foam sprayed to and prevent the fre from spreading By Febru ary 14 the fre had been located at two locatio ns The frst was a stope located at 6100 level with a rise to 5900 level the second was located at a stope on 6400 level to 6200 level Hydrau lic fll lines were brought to these loca tions and the valves opened The fre was fnally put out by February 16 and the ventilation fans were turned on from the 4600 level to 5300 level to vent out carbon monoxide gas At one point when CO levels were at the highest level there was concern that it might enter into the Hol linger Mine via a party wall that connected the two mines The mine rescue efort had expended 3376 team hours 16880 man hours and 405