Oct 12, 2014 4 min read

Mine disasters have become rare in this part of the country, and that is fortunate because Greene and Washington counties have their share of underground mining operations.

Large-scale mine disasters in years past have stirred the fires of reform and provided the impetus for legislation to provide the miner with a safer working place. Considering the numbers compiled by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, something is working.

Nationwide, MSHA figures tell us, 191 miners have died from 2007 to 2013. Decades ago, that number might have represented one disaster at one mine. A record low number of 18 fatalities was documented in 2009, but the number jumped to 48 the following year.

But that figure is somewhat skewed by the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia, when 29 of 31 miners at the site were killed in an underground explosion. The accident was the worst in the United States since 1970, when 38 miners were killed in a Kentucky mishap.

Nonetheless, underground coal mining has long been considered one of the most dangerous occupations, and despite the best of intentions and legislation to make it safer, accidents and disasters do occur.

That brings us to an event last week at the Mining Technology and Training Center in Ruff Creek, where 25 teams representing coal companies and mines competed in the Nationwide Mine Rescue Skills Championship.

We are very fortunate to have such a facility, and while we recognize mine rescue events are regularly held on a football field at the King Coal Show in Carmichaels each year, nothing quite compares to honing skills in a facility that actually simulates what it is like to be underground, where the only light is from a miner’s hat.

Mine rescue teams are specially trained to respond during a mine emergency. Their members are the first to go underground following a fire or an explosion to rescue fellow miners or to extinguish a blaze that could jeopardize the mine and the livelihood of hundreds of workers. Joe Main, a Greene County native who is head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, put it this way: “This is probably the most difficult emergency response undertaken in this country.”

Team members are trained to work in the hazardous conditions that could exist underground following a disaster. Entering the mine, they may encounter fire, dense smoke, chest-high water or methane gas that can quickly rise or fall to explosive levels.

During the competition, the teams participated in a traditional mine rescue contest in which each team attempts to solve a set of problems and address various mine conditions in a simulated mine disaster. They also are tested on a number of skills, including exploration amid smoke, firefighting, first aid, gas detection, air measurement and knowledge of breathing apparatuses. A written test also is part of the competition.

Of course, what makes this all possible is the facility itself. The training center features a simulated coal mine inside a 40,000-square-foot building, as well as a burn tunnel and smoke chamber to give the training and contest a more lifelike feel.

Credit for this must go to Main, who helped design the center prior to becoming head of MSHA, said Clemmy Allen, executive director of the UMWA Career Center Inc., which runs the facility.

We hope none of the members of the rescue teams have to put these skills to use. But if they do, we are confident the outcome will be positive. Everybody involved in mine rescue, is the best of the best, a trainer for one the teams said. And we know, as most in the coal-mining field knows, a miner who will risk his life for another miner is a special person.