As part of ongoing training, to ensure competency, part-time Rescue Men had to attend a training session every two months. The training sessions were called Rescue Practices and were programmed so that every part-time rescue worker used the S.E.F.A. breathing apparatus 6 times per year.
S.E.F.A. Closed circuit oxygen Breathing Apparatus.
If a practice was missed due to holidays, illness or injury it was reprogrammed as soon as practicable to ensure competency. The training sessions were usually programmed so that the teams at each pit trained together.
One of the training sessions every year was the Selby Group Competition which included a rescue scenario and a question and answer oral exam.
Rescue competition log entry.
Due to the revision of training after the Lofthouse Colliery disaster in March 1973 a training session working in water was added and had to be carried out every 2 years. This practice involved moving around a swimming pool as a team with diving weights around your waist, and a black bag covering your helmet and facemask to ensure sensory deprivation.
The practice was designed to see what working in teams in slurry and deep water up to 10 feet in depth felt like.
Disorientation and breathing difficulty due to pressure in deep water were issues on this practice. Working under water would only ever be used to save life at a incident.
In Water Training notes.
Using Breathing Apparatus in extreme heat and humidity is very stressful when working in an incident underground. Every 2 years rescue teams were tested in the Rescue Station Hot and Humid chamber to ensure awareness of the dangers of working at physical and mental limits. The S.E.F.A breathing apparatus were set to high oxygen flow for this training session. The teams were set a training scenario early in the session. The teams then entered the chamber for the last 19 minutes at maximum temperature and humidity. The Captain of the team monitored the atmospheric conditions inside the chamber using a piece of kit called a Whirling Hygrometer and saturation / heat chart.
Whirling Hygrometer.
Photograph courtesy of Science Museum.
Temperature / Saturation working time chart
Continual physical checks ensured the team’s safety whilst the men carried out heavy exercise consisting of either riding a static cycle, shovelling piles of gravel, carrying water barrels or lifting weights in rotation. The men were very closely monitored for signs of heat stroke and exhaustion.
Training log entry for hot and humid practice.
Rescue men attended practices at collieries in the Rescue Station area to familiarise themselves with the location of all the other pits they may be called to in the case of an incident.
On arrival at a practice the Captain and the team were given a brief on the rescue scenario along with the mine plans needed. They checked and tested all the equipment likely to be needed and progressed to the Fresh Air Base. The pits in the Selby Rescue Station area were Gascoigne Wood, Wistow, Stillingfleet, North Selby, Riccall, Whitemoor, Kellingley, Hatfield Main, Thorne, Prince of Wales and Hayroyds Colliery.
Below are some of the Rescue Practices I attended at different collieries.
Practice at Hayroyds Colliery.
Practice at Thorne Colliery.
Practice at North Selby Mine.
Practice at Whitemoor Mine.
Practice at Wistow Mine.
Practice at Riccall Mine.
Practice at Kellingley Colliery.
The above Rescue Practices are some of the entries from my training log. These show the types of scenarios and some of the collieries visited to familiarise the teams. The Rescue Practices were designed to test the teams in very difficult conditions and over a 12 month period all the rescue equipment available for use is used as part of these training scenarios.
Many thanks to Katie Cavanagh and Stephanie Thompson at the National Coal Mining Museum for making my training logs available.
Selby Superpit 