Company spokeswoman Lynn Seay told ILN that smoke was detected at the mine in Wayne, Greene County, about 2pm Tuesday.

All 121 miners working the mine’s day shift were evacuated via the Kuhntown portal.

“Overnight Tuesday, Consol Energy, working closely with federal and state authorities, was able to identify the general location of a fire and began implementing an aggressive plan to contain and extinguish it,” Seay said.

The company is yet to say what caused the blaze.

Seay said the group’s plan included two primary strategies. These were to mobilize all resources to maximize the amount of water injected into the mine, and to conduct continuous air sampling to monitor carbon monoxide and methane levels.

“At midnight, an existing borehole at the Orndoff shaft was opened and by 8am this morning [Wednesday, local time], 125,000 gallons of water had been pumped into the mine,” she said.

Seay said the producer was working to deploy three vertical drilling rigs to drill additional boreholes near the Orndoff shaft.

Those holes will allow for a greater volume of water going into the mine.

The first rig arrived at the Blacksville complex at about 9.30am Wednesday morning, and Seay said crews were anticipating a 5pm local time arrival for the second rig unit.

A third is being shipped from the company’s Bailey mine, not far from Blacksville.

“Three sampling lines have been lowered into the Orndoff shaft to monitor for CO and methane,” Seay told ILN, adding that it is establishing a data baseline to monitor deviations.

“Consol Energy’s team remains on-site around the clock to monitor the situation and has also secured all of the necessary machinery to support these efforts.”

Blacksville No. 2 remains closed and both the midnight and day shifts Wednesday were cancelled. All shifts at the mine and the preparation facility will continue to be cancelled while the dousing and remediation efforts continue.

The company has joined with local radio stations to provide work announcements to the mine’s employees.

Seay said it was not known at this time when the mine’s operations could resume.

“No personnel will re-enter the mine until it is determined that it is safe to do so,” she said.

According to US Mine Safety and Health Administration statistics, the mine employs more than 500 workers. It produced about 3.2 million tons of coal last year.