Blind roadways have only one portal which connects with other types of mine roadways. Sealing the fire area in a blind roadway is an effective method of disaster relief in a mine. To understand the effect of sealing ratio and sealing distance on fire behavior, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS 6.6) was used to study blind roadway fires with different fire scenarios. Results indicate that the smoke flow velocity increases significantly with the increase of sealing distance. The fire in the blind roadway is ventilation-controlled. When the sealing ratio reaches 80%, the fire self-extinguishes completely. Otherwise, the fire experiences an extinguishing-reburning cycle periodically. Besides, an empirical model is proposed to predict the downstream temperature distribution beneath the ceiling in the region from fire source to sealing position. The predictions by the proposed model comply well with the simulation and experimental results from our and others’ studies. This study provides new insights into the sealing strategies in blind roadway fires, and the outcomes of the current study are of guiding significance for the fire rescue in the blind roadways or similar structures. © 2022, The Author(s)