The GAG jet engine specialist team included ten members from Bowen Basin mines - Broadmeadow, Newlands, North Goonyella, Central, Grasstree, Oaky North, Kestrel and Crinum - and was lead by QMRS operations manager Mick Farrag.

 

The team arrived in Virginia Thursday morning (Friday morning Australia time) and underwent acclimatisation before commencing fire-fighting on Saturday (Sunday night Australian time).

 

The QMRS team was called in by Consol Energy specifically for its GAG expertise. The GAG jet engine technology renders an underground mine atmosphere inert by eliminating oxygen through a release of carbon dioxide and water vapor into the mine. The technology has been used to fight mine fires and create inert mine atmospheres in Australia since 1999.

 

The QMRS team will use US company Phoenix First Response’s GAG technology at Buchanan. Phoenix purchased two GAG jet engines from Poland in late 2003.

 

The Buchanan fire started February 14 2005 after a goaf fall sparked a methane ignition and created a localised fire near the longwall. Employees working underground at the time were immediately evacuated (without serious injury), and mining suspended. The mine was sealed on February 16.

 

QMRS state manager Wayne Hartley told International Longwall News it would take the team, together with US mine authorities, at least 10 days to make the mine inert.

 

“Buchanan is a huge mine, and we will certainly be looking at 10 days and beyond to inertise the mine. It will take some time to displace the volume of flammable gases so we can extinguish the fire,” Hartley said.

 

The Buchanan fire came almost two years to the day since a QMRS team flew to West Virginia to extinguish an underground fire at Consol Energy’s Loveridge No. 22 mine. Thirteen personnel travelled with a GAG Inertisation Unit and completely inertised the Consol mine after six days of continuous operation.

 

Hartley said the Buchanan fire was similar to the Loveridge case. At the time, Loveridge was one of the biggest mine’s the GAG had ever made inert.

 

“Buchanan is even larger than Loveridge. It’s not whether we can extinguish the fire, but simply a matter of when,” he said.

 

“The industry has given huge commitment to QMRS and its fellow colleagues. Even though those in need might be international – it just goes to show we are happy to stand up and be counted,” Hartley said.

 

QMRS will provide regular updates on the team’s progress to the Mines Inspectorate, mine managers and the team members’ families.