Miners evacuated

A worker evacuated from Goldcorp Inc.’s fire-endangered Musselwhite gold mine north of Thunder Bay says it was like sitting next to a 10-mile long campfire.

Mike Vaillant, who was airlifted out of the camp on Thursday after an eight-hour wait, arrived home in Thunder Bay and called it a surreal situation.

“It looked like it was snowing with all the ash that was falling,” Vaillant said. “Overnight last night two small fires joined together to become one big fire and advanced 20 kilometres with the southerly winds.”

About 380 workers were evacuated  from the mine, located about 480 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, throughout the day.

Vaillant said it was a long wait, but he wasn’t really worried about the situation.

“We all knew planes were coming. It was more when were we going to get out.

It was getting bad as the day went on.”

The company has left a skeleton staff of management and mine rescue workers on site, but Vaillant said the MNR has taken over the camp to battle the fires.  Electricity has been cut to the site, which is now being operated on generator power.

Wasaya Airways remains on standby just in case.

The mine produces about 250,000 ounces of gold each year, and began commercial production in 1997. According to the Canadian Press, quoting the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, there are about 81 fires burning in Northwestern Ontario.

-- With files from The Canadian Press