Fire Simulation Assists Mine Emergency Training Exercises
Abstract
In Queensland coal mines under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulations 2001, the mine's safety and health management system must provide for managing emergencies at the mine. The system must include provision for carrying out aided rescue and self-escape of persons from the mine in an emergency and also auditing and reviewing the emergency exercises. For a number of years mines have been participating in what are termed Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 evacuation exercises on a regular basis. The categories of exercises are:- • Level 1. Whole industry exercise organised by Mines Inspectorate and from which a report on outcome is widely circulated • Level 2 . Once a year full mine simulated evacuation followed by debrief. • Level 3. Done every six months for each section crew. Crews presented with a scenario and undertake evacuation followed by de-brief. • Level 4 . One hour training on emergency scenario. Mine fires are recognized across the world as a major hazard issue . New approaches allow improvement in understanding of their consequences. A research project incorporating a number of mine site exercises to reduce the effects of fire incidents and possible consequent health and safety hazards has been undertaken focused on the application of mine fire simulation software packages for contaminate tracing and fire modelling in coal and metalliferous mines. This paper examines work undertaken to assist mines in the planning of emergency incident exercises. Examples of work undertaken in each of these categories are described. Meeting requirements for annual involvement in and management of the Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 exercises is a significant effort for underground mines. The type of work that has been undertaken in assisting mines with " fire" based exercises and management approaches to development and implementation are discussed.
Recommended Citation
S. Gillies and H. W. Wu, "Fire Simulation Assists Mine Emergency Training Exercises," Proceedings of the 31st International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes (2005, Brisbane, Australia), Queensland Government, Oct 2005.
Meeting Name
31st International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes (2005: Oct. 2-5, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
Department(s)
Mining Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Aided Rescue; Emergency Exercises; Mine Fires; Self-Escape
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2005 Queensland Government, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
05 Oct 2005
