Mine Rescue Teams Compete in Vincennes
WTHI
June 6, 2013
Men involved in one of the most dangerous jobs in a sometimes dangerous profession square off in a competition in southern Indiana.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists mining as one of the deadliest ways to make a living.
In Vincennes the men who volunteer to try and save those caught in an underground disaster are testing their training at the Indiana Mine Rescue Games.
This is one of several teams from 4 states that are in Vincennes for the Mine Rescue Games.
Here they are working through a mock disaster under a cloudy southern Indiana sky.
They work along rope corridors instead of rock walls, dealing with problems spelled out by cards, working to try and save imaginary lives.
"What they are doing here is they're working on a problem as a mock disaster of what you would encounter after a coal mine explosion or a coal mine fire," said organizer Shawn Batty with the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The idea is working through a puzzle.
Judges keep tabs on decisions the crews make and just like in real life time counts.
"The training they get today is invaluable in the response time in the event we ever do have a disaster," said Batty.
During the last several years there have been some underground mines open in the Wabash Valley and this competition is about helping those miners in case the worst should happen.
"We hope it never happens in this area," said trainer Terry Phegley with the Black Panther Mine. "You hope nothing happens at your mine, but if it does happen we hope we've got the guys trained to handle the situation."
Training that comes in the form of a competition between teams in the daylight that could someday be the difference between life and death in depths of the underground mines.
Participating teams in the Indiana Mine Rescue Games came from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Alabama.
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