All 72 Trapped Canadian Miners Rescued

(CBS/AP)  Rescuers retrieved all 72 central Canadian potash miners who were trapped underground by a fire and survived until Monday by using oxygen, food and water stored in subterranean emergency chambers.

The fire broke out early Sunday in the potash mine in central Canada, filling the tunnels with toxic smoke and sending the miners to take refuge in the sealed emergency rooms. The seventy-two miners were trapped more than a half-mile underground.

A rescue team reached one of the rooms late Sunday, after the mining company had been unable to establish a radio link with the 30 miners in that room for 18 hours.

They made sure everyone was safe, and then closed them back inside until the air inside the mine could be cleared of toxic gases, Hamilton said.

The other 40 miners were separated into two groups in other safe rooms, and were in phone contact with rescuers.

"They are glad to be on the surface," said Brian Hagan, director of health and safety for Dynatech, the contractor that employed the miners, adding they were not exposed to smoke. "They protected themselves and that is what they are trained to do."

"A lot of them said they had a good sleep down there in the refuge station," he said. "They were pretty calm. They had water, they had food, they had all the stuff that they needed."

The fire broke out in polyethylene piping around 3 a.m. Sunday nearly a half-mile underground in the province of Saskatchewan. It was not immediately clear how it started.

The miners reported smoke and quickly headed for the safe refuge rooms, which can be as large as 50 feet by 150 feet and have an internal supply of oxygen that lasts up to 36 hours, along with food, water, chairs and beds.

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