Published in the August 2008 Coal USA Magazine

SCSR/Smoke Trailer Expectations Training

There’s more to WVU than just hallowed classroom halls – in 2007 the MEXT program took to the road with its SCSR and smoke trailer.

Mostly funded by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training with a contribution from SCSR producer CSE, the 40ft by 8ft trailer has been in use for about a year.

While it began life as an ordinary cargo trailer it has now become a “maze” for workers that can be adjusted for specific training scenarios using self-contained self-rescuer units amid theatrical smoke.

The mobile classroom even features man doors and a lifeline. The atmospheric conditions can be manipulated by the unit’s handlers for duration, time and visibility level while the training, which takes about 15 minutes, is underway. Both CSE SR 100 units and Ocenco EBA 6.5 units are used in the trailer for practice in donning and switching while a propane heater provides a steamy environment exceeding 95F.

“We can work with the mine operator and create training with this unit to meet their needs, if it is left up to us we have a set scenario that we try to follow,” according to WVU’s Emergency Preparedness Center director Joe Caldwell.

“Mines can use this training to fulfill the 90-day requirement for don and switch, but most importantly it meets the requirements for the yearly expectations portion of SCSR/Mine Evacuation trainings.”

In just about a year, the trailer has seen more than 5000 miners, with its popularity stemming from word of mouth. “They really appreciate the training,” Caldwell said.

“It has been my experience that you cannot effectively describe what it’s like being in dense smoke. They have to experience it for themselves.”

The trailer and its five-person staff are making the rounds across the eastern United States to minesites to bring the technology right to those who need it.

Plans are already in the works for a second trailer that will be able to canvass an extended region, but Caldwell notes one important factor is missing from that plan: more people. The mobile classroom must be properly staffed by those with industry expertise to be the most effective for its users (the current crew averages decades of experience).

Fire training: Miners take on MSHA Academy

The MEXT program also offers fire education and training classes for mine rescue team members through a partnership with the US Mine Safety and Health Administration’s Academy in Beaver, West Virginia. While the training isn’t brought to the worker in this case, Caldwell said the amount of insight gained by participants in the academy’s setting with advanced technology is invaluable.

The training, which offers certificates of completion to students, is typically two days long and includes classroom time, rebreather donning and switch practices, rescue drills in the academy’s simulated mine laboratory and outside fire training.

There is more to this course than slideshows and note-taking for the brand new miner – most classes run the gamut from red hats all the way to experienced veterans seeking to polish their skills and stay a step ahead, Caldwell said.

After a review of the properties of fire and ways to fight them, basic and advanced demonstrations on BG4 self-contained breathing apparatuses and bunker gear are conducted. That in itself is a significant move towards where the industry should be, Caldwell said, with preparation for disaster before it’s needed.

“A lot of what’s been going on in the industry has been reactive,” he said. “There needs to be a shift to proactive.

“No one knows where the next fire will happen or who will discover it,” he added, emphasizing that each miner needs to be ready for the “golden minutes” in every fire event where injuries and lives can be saved.

WVU MEXT director Jim Dean said this and all of the MEXT courses bring a true sense of reality to the situations in which students are placed – more than a textbook or instructor alone can instill.

“We have been offering a variety of fire courses for miners for over 20 years, including cross-training mine rescue teams in firefighting skills, first responder [individual miner] and fire brigade teams for both surface and underground mines. These courses offer the participants to be in an as near real life emergency as safely possible, which allows them to make decisions with newly gained information from the classroom, which is highly effective in skill and knowledge development.”