The Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines noted that many mines used variants of the Mine Emergency Management System.

“It would be appropriate to convene a forum for the exchange of views within the Queensland industry on whether the basic MEMS is appropriate or needs revision,” DNRM said.

“This should include a review and modification of the mine re-entry assessment system (MRAS) if necessary, to ensure it can be used effectively and quickly.”

The department also said a forum should be held to discuss the outcomes from level 1 and level 2 exercises and in particular the consolidation of all the recommendations from 17 level 1 emergency exercises.

Observations made from the Kestrel exercise also made DNRM conclude that guidance systems into self-contained self-rescuer and compressed air breathing apparatus locations should be standardised across the mining industry.

“For example, droppers across roadways, lifelines guiding into locations, wind chimes and the colours used for secondary escape ways,” DNRM said.

In relation to the secondary event in the emergency scenario where a leg-injured mineworker was stranded in a development area ventilated by an intake borehole, DNRM made an important recommendation that an emergency winding capability to extract workers from boreholes or shafts should be made available in the state.

The main event of the scenario consisted of a coal spillage fire at the transfer point of the main underground conveyor and the drift conveyor at the end of a shift, with the underground conveyor previously overrunning and creating a pile up of coal by the end of a shift.

This scenario’s ignition source was a faulty conveyor belt idler. The smoke and debris of the fire forced mine workers to don SCSRs and CABAs to evacuate the mine.

In terms of the drift fire, assessors were impressed that two of the first coal mine workers at the scene attempted to fight the fire. However, they did not have CABA or personal gas monitoring equipment.

While a Kestrel firefighting team which later arrived was deemed to have “good firefighting knowledge and skills”, they also did not have CABA equipment plus were wearing standard work clothes.

Aside from reviewing firefighting risk assessments, Kestrel was also recommended to implement CCTV monitoring of critical areas of the mine to aid detection and assessment of underground fires from the surface.

The use of SCSR and CABA equipment by evacuating crews was generally considered to have gone well, however issues emerged around access at CABA refill locations and finding them under low visibility conditions.

While Kestrel is not a gassy mine, the assessors also recommended that refresher training for gas monitoring, trending and explosibility determination should be undertaken in relation to how the control room performed.

The extent of the scenario’s fire triggered the need to mobilise the state’s emergency GAG inertisation equipment.

The GAG was requested at 10am, was onsite at 1.30pm and was ready to start by 3.30pm to put out the fire from the surface.

This year’s Level 1 Emergency Exercise will be held at Peabody’s North Goonyella Coal Mine.

The full report of the 2014 exercise is available here: http://mines.industry.qld.gov.au/assets/mines-safety-health/level-1-emergency-exercise-report-2014.pdf