Rescue Teams Test Skills in Las Vegas

This was no ordinary Vegas convention. Participants donned gas masks, lugged stretchers and struggled with life-and-death decisions.

Nearly 300 underground-rescue experts from around the world gathered Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center to compete against one another in rescuing “victims” of a mock mine disaster.

The competition was as realistic as it gets--short of an actual emergency--for rescuers to hone skills in entering treacherous subterranean shafts to save comrades trapped by water, fire, smoke or noxious gasses.

The event, sponsored by the U.S. Labor Department, attracted 31 teams--most representing U.S. mining companies but also some from Canada, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Thailand and Ukraine.

And if there was any doubt about the pressure the rescuers felt, the sweat dripping off their faces--and the apprehensive shouts heard from beneath their breathing masks--betrayed the day’s realism.

The rescue scenarios were executed on the convention center floor, where curtains were erected to represent the serpentine paths and dead ends of a 350-foot-deep mine.

Mines tend to have interesting names, and the one assigned to this exercise reflected the local setting: the Riviera Mining Co.’s 10 Spot Keno Mine.

But that’s where the fun and games ended.

The scenario was the same for each team: A cave-in at the far end of the mine forced most of the miners to evacuate, but four who remained behind to clean up the rubble became trapped by an apparent methane gas explosion.

The drill: for the rescuers--with pained patience and forced discipline--to work their way to the victims while safely overcoming various hazards along the way. The dangers were represented by placards taped to the floor, such as high levels of carbon monoxide, fallen timbers and the like.

The overall challenge was to identify and isolate pockets of lethal gas so air circulation could be reestablished, flushing the mine clear of noxious fumes so the trapped victims could be returned to the surface.

Judges from the labor department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration shadowed the rescuers, deducting points along the way for breaches of mine-safety protocol--including some that, in theory, could have cost the rescuers their lives.

All the while, the clock was ticking. Each rescue generally took from 90 minutes to two hours to complete; if not achieved in two hours--for purposes of this contest--the rescue mission was deemed a failure.

In real life, mine rescues can take days to complete.

“What’s most frustrating for mine rescuers is to resist the instinct to run in quickly and reach the victims,” said J. Davitt McAteer, an assistant labor secretary who oversees mine safety. Rescuers have been killed because they breached safety guidelines and placed themselves in fatal jeopardy.

“You can’t put a life at risk to save a life,” he said.

Among the errors committed during Wednesday’s exercises by several teams: They overlooked an operating water pump while walking in an area designated as flooded with water. While they dutifully checked to make sure the water was not conducting an electrical current, the mere walking through the water--according to the rules--stirred up methane gas that could have been ignited by the pump, killing the rescuers.

They weren’t blown to smithereens--instead, they were docked a healthy dose of points.

The error was committed by, among others, a team of rescuers who were brought together to represent the United States in the international competition.

“We should have turned the pump off first,” admitted team leader Robert Seelke with a sigh. “We should have known that when we stirred the water, we would have allowed methane to escape.”

Another rescue team, from Green River, Wyo., successfully reached the two survivors of the blast (two others were “killed” by the blast), but the team’s medic mistakenly bandaged the burned hand of one of the victims without weaving the gauze between the fingers, meaning they might fuse together before they could be treated.

It is these kinds of lessons learned, the rescuers said, that probably will ensure that they won’t make the same mistakes again.

“This is our best training--under the pressure of competition,” said Rob Mulinix, the captain from Green River, after his team was evaluated by judges. Overall team rankings will be announced today.

The errors committed Wednesday underscore an irony for the mine rescue teams that work in the United States, representing both private mining companies and the Labor Department’s own rescuers.

Because mine safety has progressed so dramatically in the United States, there have been fewer mine rescues in recent years--and fewer opportunities for rescuers to perform under stress.

The industry employs about 53,000 underground miners in about 1,000 active mines. In 1999, 34 miners were killed; so far this year, 11 have perished.

There are dramatically more mine tragedies in Ukraine, generating a buzz on the convention floor that its rescue team may be the best in the world.

“Unfortunately, that may be so,” said its captain as he readied his team for the competition.