Fire in Iron Range Mine Nearly Out

TOWER, Minn. (AP) — Officials say a fire that started Thursday in an underground mine on Minnesota's Iron Range is nearly out.

Minnesota Interagency Fire Center spokesman Carson Berglund says Sunday that cameras sent into the mine show very little smoke. The cameras also show minimal damage, and the temperature of the mine is back to normal.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports that firefighters will enter the mine once it's safe.

The fire in the Soudan Underground Mine State Park began Thursday when timbers in the elevator shaft caught fire. Crews capped it off to starve the fire of oxygen, and sprayed foam and 50,000 gallons of water into the shaft.

The Soudan mine closed in 1962. Today it's an Iron Range tourist site and home to a University of Minnesota physics lab.

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