A fire is now out at a Saskatchewan potash mine where 20 workers were underground in a refuge area.
The fire started at 1:56 a.m. CST on Tuesday at PotashCorp's Rocanville mine, according to the company.
The 20 miners can communicate with the outside and are not in immediate danger, said PotashCorp manager of public affairs Bill Cooper.
No one has been injured, he said.
A mine rescue team spent the morning trying to extinguish the fire. There's no official word on when the 20 employees will be brought to the surface.
"Putting a fire out in a mine is much different than putting one out above ground," Cooper said.
"You have to consider the safety of your employees underground and your mine teams and you move as quickly as you can in a safe manner."
Kept in safe room
One of the trapped workers is Ben Mitchell, a 26-year-old mechanic from Birtle, Man., who is currently inside a safe room while the air clears up underground.
Mechanic Ben Mitchell, 26, has been in a safe room underground at the mine since early Tuesday morning, according to his fiancee, Nicole Lane. (Facebook)His fiancée, Nicole Lane, told CBC News that Mitchell called her at around 7:45 a.m. using a phone in the safe room.
"He called and just said that he was safe in there, that he was in there by himself because nobody was … working with him at the time," she said.
"The mine would be calling him every hour to make sure that he was OK."
Lane said she was told all the trapped workers should be above ground by late in the afternoon.
Originally, there were 29 people underground when the fire broke out, but nine of them were lifted out.
The cause of the fire hasn't been disclosed, but it started when a large wooden spool somehow ignited, Cooper said.
Rocanville is about 230 kilometres east of Regina.
