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€~e Continued from page 1. ' fire ie contained, be said. Sowever, if the blaze ie big enough, it may be necessary to eeel the entire mine at the port- hole. Leonard said last night after everyone had been evacuated, MSHA inspectors showed up and decided to sand a mine rescue unit underground to begin an investigation of what's going on. Before the rescue unit could go underground; several backup unite from Colorado and Ukah mines were called to the site. Human Resources manager for Qyprua Twentymile Coal Company, Ron Spangler, said one of the mine's rescue unite ie assisting with the Deserado Fite. beonard said the rescue unit Isom-'Fweaty'h~ile went inside the mine gesterday. "]'ve been very aurprieed and i~presaed with the level of coop- ::11}@tion we bave'teceived from ether mines," he said.. "This is a9t a companq,to company kind aj'thing,.it's s people to people ~ of thing." With the additional rescue aail:s in p1aFe, hfSHA gave its .~ rr~~ssion tb enter the mine,' ~i. ~ti>oard said. ~ : - . -~Reireseue chew carried with it t~oipmen~ to monitor carbon mortaaide. and methane levels as -ttyey went, he said. As the res- eue team headed into the mine they stopped periodically to take. a reeding and report it to offi- ciate on the sueJ31ee. "During the night the mine rescue team got as far as the tailgate where they reported a very high methane reading," Leonard said. "When they detected the. high level of Isethane MSHA officials acted according to the law end said `everybody out,' Thie morning the methane reading stabilized, leading the experts to believe the higfi reading from the night before was an anomaly." Rescue unite entering the mine Thursday morning were able to get very close to the foagwal! and at last report had been able to get even deeper into the wino, be said. During the afternoon rescue crews proceeded farther into the mine, getting very close to the face, he said. "We've gone Crom a situation where we could have a mine closed from indefinitely to infinitely, to tour months, down to two'monthe or four weeks. We just don't know yet," Leonard said. "We have to do the con- atructien down there to seal off the burning area. It's just too soon to say how long this will effect Deserado operations." Mine and MSHA officials are working to formulate a plan for the successful eatinguiahing of the blaze, Leonard said. The possibility still eaiste that res- cue crews will be able to douse the blaze' using foam. In the event foam is unsucceea[ul, wortEere are drilling from the top of the mine to the. area where the 1`ire is Duroing. Once thehoha.is filled carbon dioxide will be injected to help smother Vie; he-said. The carbon dieside injections are expected to begin Monday. Leonard said the present state of affairs at the mine is particu- larly disheartening following so ehertly on the heels of the mine's recent 3 1/2 month idle period. Ifs said the mine went to idle status for some 14 weeks to give its sole contract Deseret Oeaeration and Transmission electric coopet<ative a chance to .nee up most. of its 500,000 ton .stockpile. "It's troublesome because the ling was based on problems )pesetet was having with their debt situation," he said. "They decided to live off the stockpile Yor about three months while ilkey converted their coal to~ Mash. They had just got to the" point where tbey had used the coal and we got to the point where we could resume opera- tions: Productivity was coming back up. The new deal was in and everyone was getting the hang of a new way of doing things Then this happens. It's serieue. What it means, we can't e~eA apeeulate at this point.'