About forty-five minutes after the fire started, men were told to abandon the mine. About 10 to 12 cages full of men reached the surface through the elevator shaft. Others scrambled up the escape shaft. About 2:00 p.m. someone decided to reverse the fans that supplied air into the mine. This spread the fire and made matters much worse. Rescue workers went into the mine to try to save lives. But after a cage full of rescuers was lost at about 4:00 p.m., the company decided to seal off the mine.