Fire halts operation at Lucky Friday

MULLAN –– Authorities with Hecla Mining Company are investigating an underground fire at the Lucky Friday mine that broke out sometime in the late hours of Sunday night.

Mike Satre, Hecla’s Director of Governmental Affairs, told the News-Press that on late Sunday evening, smoke was noticed emitting from the mine’s Number 2 Shaft.

Mine authorities immediately contacted the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and as of Monday morning, they were working with them to get their trained response teams underground in order to pinpoint the location of the fire, designate safe access to the area, and then determine what is going on and how to address the situation.

According to Satre, due to the mine’s workflow, no one was underground when the smoke was noticed, so no emergency evacuations were required.

The official cause of the fire is still unknown, however, several people on various social media platforms have reported a particularly noxious layer of smoke that was blanketing much of the town of Mullan and surrounding area – which has led to speculation that the fire was chemical based.

“We don’t know what type of fire it is,” Satre said. “Certainly we’re seeing a lot of rumors out there about it being a chemical fire, but there’s nothing behind that.”

Satre followed that statement up by warning locals to stay inside if they’re concerned about the smoke – due largely to lack of information concerning the fire and its source, and the materials that it may have interacted with, he doesn’t know what the consequences of breathing in the smoke would be – other than the boilerplate information that comes when air quality is poor due to the presence of smoke.

“Anytime smoke occurs, whether that’s forest fire or something else, folks should take precautions in order to reduce exposure,” he said.

He did reiterate that no one was underground when the smoke was initially noticed, and no miner or mine staff was ever in any danger.

“We are not putting people back underground except for our trained response teams with the approval and oversight of MSHA,” Satre said. “Right now we’re doing our best to assess the situation and there is no timetable for resuming operations at this time.”

The Press will continue to follow this ongoing story.