Mine rescue teams have been the first people on the scene of any coal mine disaster since the early 20th Century, but their specialized training and unique capabilities make them a vital link in any situation where conditions underground require monitoring to insure the safety of their fellow coal miners.

“You can only send a coal miner to rescue another coal miner,” Tyrone Coleman, 28-year veteran mine rescue team member and training coordinator of I.C.G. Incorporated’s coal mines said at a recent mine rescue team competition in Bluefield, West Virginia. “These men are regular coal miners. When they’re in training or at a competition, other coal miners take their place in the mine. They have special demands.”

Although it’s not something most people think about when they think of mine rescue teams, the mine rescue teams of Consol’s Buchanan Mine near Mavisdale, Virginia played a very important role in minimizing the downtime at the big mine that employs 520 coal miners and produces 400,000 to 425,000 tons of metallurgical coal per year out of the famed Pocahontas No. 3 coal seam.

Production at the mine was halted on July 9, 2007, after several roof falls in previously mined areas of the Buchanan Mine caused damage to several ventilation controls in the mine and prompted its evacuation. Consol engineers immediately set out to develop a new roof control plan in order to get the ventilation systems back on line and to resume production.

After affecting repairs on January 28, 2008, Consol’s mine rescue team personnel re-entered the mine to start the evaluation and repair process, according to news release postings on the company’s web site. The mine rescue team personnel monitored the air, removed temporary seals with the approval of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. The rescue team personnel monitored the mine’s air quality for a week before re-entering the mine for a final check.

On February 26, 2008, Consol announced that the mine’s longwall mining system and two of its four continuous miners were restarted and moved, and on March 17, 2008, Consol announced that the Buchanan Mine was back in full production.

“After a problem of any kind occurs at any coal mine, the mine rescue teams are the first coal miners to re-enter the mine, conduct an inspection and gather information needed to resolve the problem,” Mike Rutledge, mine rescue team coordinator of the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training said. “I think it is safe to say that without the efforts of the mine rescue teams from Consol, the Buchanan Mine would not have been back in production as soon as it was.”

Rutledge and Coleman were attending a mine rescue team competition sponsored by Welch Post No. 1 of the National Mine Rescue Association, who are known as “Smoke Eaters.” The Smoke Eaters were the first mine rescue team organized in the early 1900s. Milton Smallwood of the Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, and Mike Plumley, a member of the Cleveland Cliff Incorporated’s Pinnacle Mine “red” mine rescue team, served as the contest directors.