Category: Training

Mines Rescue Practices.

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.

Mines Rescue Training

 

The 14 Permanent Rescue Brigadesmen worked a 14 week “rota” system where 5 men were available along with an officer between 1600 hrs and 0800 hrs. The 6 men, who were on call at weekends, undertook work and telephone duties due to the Nightwatchman working only Monday to Friday.

Two Rescue Brigadesmen were allocated to service breathing apparatus on weeks 4 and 12 of the rota.

Weeks 7 and 14 of rota did not have any after hours duties so the rescue brigadesmen could use these weeks to book holidays.

Initially – Mondays were Permanent Corps training days, where a team went to a local mine with the Assistant Superintendent or Third Officer and undertook a rescue training wearing breathing apparatus

Wednesdays were station training days where a team of Rescue Brigadesmen undertook a rescue training wearing breathing apparatus in the rescue station “galleries” which had 2 x 36 metre mock of both a coal face (low and high seam) and headings (low and high seam)

Rescue Brigadesmen also undertook a number of daily duties i.e. ground maintenance, cleaning, painting etc.

The station had a hot and humid chamber where rescue workers could do work under extreme conditions (hot and humid working reduced working time wearing breathing apparatus from 2 hours to as little as 19 minutes)

The site also had a large lecture room that could accommodate 50 people and its own gym (treadmill and weights)

The station staff spend a lot of days training part time rescue workers including;

  • New rescue workers who had to complete a 15 day initial course in rescue with 3 to 4 courses completed each year with around 8 to 12 trainees per course.
  • Existing rescue workers had to undertake 6 rescue practices per annum.
  • Rescue Brigades men had to undertake minimum of 12 practices per annum.
  • At its peak there were 23 part time rescue teams from mines covered by Selby Rescue Station so it is not difficult to see that quite a lot of time was spent training people and servicing equipment.

When station opened the Siebe Gorman Proto apparatus was still in service as was the Aerolox liquid oxygen breathing apparatus. Proto had been in service in various forms since 1908. These sets were replace by the Sabre SEFA breathing apparatus around 1989 (this was eventually replace by the Drager BG4)

To give staff experience and improve competency Rescue Brigadesmen also worked in mines carrying out the following tasks;

  • Building prepared stopping sites
  • Building stoppings
  • Building air doors
  • Sealing air doors with shotcrete
  • Involved in installing / dismantling ventilation fans

These were useful skills to develop as an emergency underground was more likely to require rescue teams to undertake activities to save the mine, rather than save life, as monitoring systems, ventilation and general health and safety had improved dramatically in the mining industry.

The hot and humid chamber was also utilised on occasions and staff volunteered to wear a variety of types of new breathing apparatus that were being trialled prior to being manufactured.

Many thanks and kind regards to Ronnie Munro, a Mines Rescue Officer at Selby Mines Rescue Station, now at MRSL (Mines Rescue Services Limited), who trained me on many occasions and who provided me with the information in this post.