Ninth Biennial National Western Region Mine Rescue Competition
September 17 2009
Free Press Files
Elkford’s Greenhills competition mine rescue team won two awards in the Ninth Biennial National Western Region Mine Rescue Competition, held last weekend in Fernie.
The team, who are all members of the Greenhills shift mine rescue teams, were given trophies for the written and fire fighting tasks.
In fire fighting the team faced rescuing a man from a burning building, first making the area safe by putting out a fire beneath the building and controlling fires that were burning in the windows.
The 40 minute written test included questions from three mine rescue manuals.
Greenhills first aid coach Cathy Follett said the team had worked hard to prepare for both tasks, especially the written exam.
“They didn’t have much time so the guys hit the books hard and it paid off for them.
“I am going to miss training with these highly skilled, humorous, caring, strong individuals. I felt so privileged to be a part of their team.”
Eighteen other teams from across Canada and the United States joined Greenhills in completing scenarios involving all aspects of mine rescue – underground teams competing on Friday and surface teams on Saturday.
More than 500 people attended the banquet and awards ceremony at the Fernie Memorial Arena on Friday night,
The competition originally began as a way to recognize the work done by mine rescue teams in this area, and also to give the ministry of mines an idea of how strong the mine rescue skills are in the province.
Competition chair Barrie Simoneau said he will be speaking about the importance of the competition when he visits the Czech Republic next week.
Mayor of Fernie and chair of the local organizing committee Cindy Corrigan added
“I think it was exceptional. The people that came to town were really pleased with the response they got from the whole community. People were friendly, helpful which I think says a lot for our community. I think it was a huge economic boost in September for the whole area.”
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