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ACTON, CA. – The Los
Angeles County Fire Department battled a
blaze in the abandoned Red Rover Mine,
once owned by a former governor of
California, for hours early Saturday
morning. The California Department of
Conservation provided the firefighters
with some insight about the mine’s
layout and the same cautionary words it
gives to all those who go near abandoned
mines:
“Stay out, stay
alive.”
Firefighters arrived
at the old gold mine -- located about
three miles northwest of Acton in
Soledad Canyon – about 3 a.m. They
unsuccessfully used water to try to
quell the blaze but managed to put it
out using high-expansion foam.
According to the fire
department, the blaze started on a
wooden frame above a 30-foot deep shaft.
It appears that lateral tunnels running
off the shaft brought in air to keep the
fire burning, and timbers inside the
mine fueled the fire. There is no
indication of how the fire started or
whether anyone was inside the mine.
“We warned the fire
department personnel about the
possibility that the shaft may be much
deeper than they could see,” DOC
Director of Communications Carol Dahmen
said. “There might have been debris
blocking the shaft. We indicated that
they should use caution if they were to
enter the shaft. They had no intention
of doing so, which is the smart move.”
California Governor
Henry T. Gage owned the Red Rover Mine
from 1899-1903. It consisted of six
shafts ranging from 100 to 650 feet deep
covering about a quarter of a mile along
the strike of the vein. Most of the
shafts have been filled in. The property
was inactive from 1912-1931, when the
Governor Mines Company acquired it. In
1938, about 200 tons of ore valued at
$10 per ton were mined. It has been
inactive since the early 1940s, and
nearly all of the machinery has been
removed.
The L.A. County Fire
Department indicated that there was a
mine rescue at the Governor Mine – about
a mile away from the Red Rover Mine –
several years ago. Department of
Conservation records indicated that
there is a body in the Governor Mine in
an area too dangerous to allow removal.
DOC’s Office of Mine
Reclamation last year did a study
stating that there are approximately
39,000 abandoned mines in the state. The
study estimated that 84 percent of those
historic mines present some physical
safety hazard, such as unstable
structures that could collapse. An
additional 11 percent present
environmental hazards, such as old
explosives, chemicals and poisonous
gasses.
In addition to
studying and mapping abandoned mines,
the Department of Conservation ensures
the reclamation of land used for mining;
maps and categorizes mineral resources;
promotes beverage container recycling;
regulates oil, gas and geothermal wells;
studies and maps earthquakes and other
geologic phenomena; and administers
agricultural and open-space land
conservation programs.
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