No injuries reported after Donkin Mine fire

DONKIN — The Donkin Mine, it seems, is the most closely watched worksite in Nova Scotia and it will be getting some extra attention in the coming days after an underground fire on Sunday.

During a Monday afternoon Zoom call with reporters, Gary O’Toole, senior executive director for the Safety Branch for the province, referenced a large number of compliance orders and penalties issued to the mine and its owners since it reopened last September.

“We are paying attention to all the detail around safety in the mine,” said O’Toole, a Cape Breton native.

“This is one of the most regulated and most visited worksites in Nova Scotia from a safety perspective and so the corresponding number of orders and penalties should not be surprising to anyone and it is really because we are paying attention to all the detail.”

THE INCIDENT

The province was alerted to the most recent issue at the mine around 7 p.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after smoke was detected in the mine.

No miners were underground at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported. However, a stop work order for production work in the mine was issued while an investigation into the cause of the fire played out.

“We won’t rescind that order until we are satisfied there is compliance with all the safety rules,” said O’Toole.

“Like all Nova Scotians, we are concerned when we hear that there is a report of a fire in a mine and we are currently investigating the incident.”

O’Toole said a mine inspector was on site Monday morning to begin an investigation. The objective will be to investigate and assess the situation to understand thoroughly what led to the cause of the fire with the goal of preventing it from happening again.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE

James Edwards, the District 8 councillor for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, heard there was smoke coming from the mine between 7:30-8 p.m. Sunday night.

“The first thing someone thought there was a grassfire over around there but then the sirens started and the like,” Edwards said.

“So I was on the phone, as you can imagine, last night and it turned out it was a fire with the belt system. Where the fire was, I don’t know. If it was just below the surface or in the yard, I don’t know.”

O’Toole did not confirm the cause of the fire as a belt or conveyor system or the specific site of the fire when asked by reporters. The cause, he said, will be the focus of the current investigation.

If the fire was caused by a conveyor belt, as some have suggested, Bobby Gillis, a miner, mine surveyor, mine examiner, supervisor and

mine rescuer, speculated to the Cape Breton Post there may have been a seized belt roller that became hot and smouldered in the fine coal dust.

“In our federal coal mines, we had what we call mine examiners who travel every shift, even when it’s idle, to check for things like this and they would have found this safety issue asap,” the former DEVCO safety committee member said.

Claude Peach, who sits on the mine’s community liaison committee, was making his way back from Sydney when his son sent him a photo of smoke coming from the mine.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to see anybody get hurt, but my God Almighty, a fire underground, that sounds pretty bad,” Peach said.

He met fire trucks on his way back into town on his way home.

“Obviously, it must have been under control because the trucks didn’t stay there that long.”

Though he sits on the liaison committee, his only information on the fire has come from news outlets.

“We have a meeting once maybe every couple of months and they just tell us what they want to tell us. Whether they’d disclose any information on this or not, I’m not sure.”

OTHER ISSUES

Orders and penalties to the mine since it reopened were highlighted in January when the mine was hit with new safety warnings, compliance orders and penalties.

The province’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration confirmed that Donkin coal mine and its U.S.-based owner and operator, Kameron Coal, received 14 warnings, 19 compliance orders and eight administrative penalties between midSeptember 2022 and Jan. 5.

Since its September reopening, the province’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration (LSI) has vowed to send in inspectors with the occupational health and safety team to keep tabs on Donkin Mine.

O’Toole said Monday that inspection activity is ongoing and that unannounced inspections occur every couple of weeks.

“I grew up very near this community; I know very well concerns that the community would have around workers being safe in the mine,” he said.

“I just know just from my own growing up the concern that probably was felt in the community when there was smoke visible coming from the mine site.

That is really how we approach our work every day. We want to make sure people going into this environment are safe, there are safety rules to protect them and that is exactly what our focus is right now.”

No timeline has been placed on the length of the stop work order or the provincial investigation.

Officials with Donkin Mine did not respond to a request for comment.