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A major mine operator recently leveled with a large industry crowd, confessing: "I am scared to death of mine fires. Scared to death." Most, understandably, side with the executive on his sentiment. After all, a factor as small as frictional heating — or even a cigarette lighter — can be the breeding ground for a full-blown ignition of a gassy environment to cause a fire or explosion, and even with the ever-growing mine fire suppression and control technology sector there still remains many areas of an operation where a mine fire can develop and thrive in the right conditions. One of the most high-profile mine fires in recent memory occurred on January 19, 2006, at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine in southern West Virginia, when a fire erupted at the mine's 9 Headgate longwall belt take-up storage unit while a 29-man crew was working underground. Two of the men, Don Bragg and Ellery Hatfield, perished. According to a final investigation report released later detailing the incident, initial attempts to extinguish the fire failed, and observations at the scene indicated that smoke from the fire was traveling further into the mine via the 2 Section intake air course. Miners in affected areas were neither immediately notified nor withdrawn following the initial carbon monoxide alarm signal from the atmospheric monitoring system. The section crew donned self-contained self-rescuers and began to make their tedious and frightening escape from the mine, hold- ing on to one another and feeling along the coal rib as they moved outby in the dense smoke. Once out of the smoke, the group discovered that their two crew- mates were missing, and smoke and intense heat made rescue attempts by mine management and even mine rescue teams an arduous task. The bodies of Bragg and Hatfield, who had gotten separated from the group and subsequently lost in their attempt to escape, were located on January 21, about 575 ft apart. The Aracoma fire was extinguished three days after that on January 24. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) con- cluded in its probe of the incident that the fire had occurred as a result of frictional heating when the longwall belt became mis- aligned in the 9 Headgate longwall belt take-up storage unit, and that frictional heating ignited accumulated combustible materials. "The required fire suppression system was not installed in the area where the fire occurred," investigators said, noting that the water was turned off to the firefighting waterline in the area, and fire hoses could not be used. Additionally, the fire extinguishers expended did not extinguish the fire and stoppings that were required to maintain separation between the belt entry, and the primary escapeway for 2 Section had previously been removed. What sounds like a perfect storm got even more added depth when MSHA revealed that the examinations of the mine were inad- equate and failed to identify the lack of separation between the pri- mary escapeway and belt air course. Additionally, examinations of safety systems failed to identify deficiencies that contributed to the severity and extent of the mine fire, and airflow carried the smoke from the fire to the belt entry and then into the primary escapeway for 2 Section through the openings created by previously removed stoppings. Aside from what the industry has learned from this and other similar events, what is already known cannot be ignored — mine fires are preventable, and while the industry is working diligently toward the ultimate goal of zero injuries and fatalities, the poten- tial remains for a mine fire to occur again somewhere in the future. That is where the phrase "knowledge is power" is key. Through education on fire prevention and firefighting techniques, and knowledge of the details of available technology and the resources available to miners across the industry, they can be better equipped to literally fight the fear of fire. What better place for them to be than in front of the issue? Firefighting Technologies, Techniques: An Overview There are nearly as many different ways to fight a mine fire as there are ways for a fire to propagate in the first place. Many investiga- tions of mine fires have focused on determining the cause of the blaze, which has in turn had a significant role in helping to under- stand what techniques and technologies are the most fundamental and crucial to fight them. They have also learned from the problems that created past fires, a silver lining in very unfortunate situations. They know by studying these previous incidents that the prob- lem is not a small one; according to data from MSHA analyzed by the National Fire Protection Association, in the 100-year period from 1900 to 1999, more than 100,000 miners died in all "unin- tentional-injury causes," as it has classified them, including mine fires and explosions (this is versus 23,000 miners under that same class in metal/nonmetal mining). firefighting B Y D O N N A S C H M I D T , F I E L D E D I T O R Overcoming Mine Fire Fears Mine fires are an unfortunate potential at any operation, but knowledge is power Between 1990 and 2001, more than 975 reportable fires occurred in U.S. mining, about 81 fires annually on average. 26 www.coalage.com March 2014 CA_pg26-29_V2_CA_pg46-47 3/11/14 9:22 AM Page 26