Fifteen people have been rescued from a mine in Costerfield, in Central Victoria, overnight.
A fire broke out at the Augusta Mine near Heathcote just after 12:30am on March 5.
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) said the mine workers extinguished the fire, but had to evacuate to an underground refuge.
District Two Assistant Chief Fire Officer Steve Alcock said the CFA and the Fosterville Mine Rescue team rushed to the mine to rescue the 15 workers.
"The rescue team had to go in and do atmospheric monitoring, to make sure the atmosphere in the mine was safe to breathe, so that the workers that were in the refuges were right to come out and make their way back to the surface," he said.
"Using gas monitors, the rescue crew went all the way to the bottom of the mine doing air sampling to ensure the atmosphere was clear from any toxins."
All 15 people were safely on the ground by 6:30am Sunday, with the site handed back to the mining company by 7:30am.
Mine rescue 'a first' for CFA officer
Mr Alcock said it was a rare task for the CFA to do a mine evacuation.
"In my time, I haven't heard of one, not to say there hasn't been one. This is the first job of this kind that I've been involved in," he said.
Mr Alcock said it could have been worse — and a more complicated rescue operation.
"There were no complications," he said.
"Our crews would have gone in with firefighting gear to make sure the fire was extinguished [if it hadn't already been put out and that] would have prolonged the incident."
Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria were also on scene.
Mr Alcock said the mining company would investigate the cause of the fire.
"The fire will be investigated by mine staff, once they can get their machinery out of the mine, to see what caused that fire. Then they'll advise if it was a fault of if it was something else."
