Page 60 - Serving on the Mine Rescue Team

ISSUE : Issue 31

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1982/6/1

Albert McLean, when he was captain of Team 3 of DEVGO Number 26 Colliery • the team we followed thru Mine Res? cue competition In 1976. Front Row, Chief Judge Herb Zychorta, Albert MacLean, Wayne Chiasson. Back row, left to right; Jim Proctor, Brian Duhamel, John MacDonald, Sheldon Guthro, Angus MacLeod, Judge Tommy Baldwin. was grease and everything burning. She was just like a bonfire. We had the fire hose spraying around, and then we were advanc? ing a few feet, and we'd think we were get? ting it out, and all of a sudden she'd come back in. We started to build chucks there, trying to make a stopping, but the fire drove us back. The superintendent at the time, he was there too--he was a barefaced man. He called the manager in the office. Told him, "We have a serious problem here--we have to do something and do it fast." He said, "It's only minutes to do it." The,manager, told him, "Take the men off the wall face, come down to the bottom level, cut the belt, and build a seal down there." So we did, we left the wall. (And there you were without any equipment.) No equipment. Well, you were just willing to help and that was it. If you're there alone, I guess you'd get a little nervous. When you saw the superin? tendent, he was there--I guess everybody looked at him, and there was no fear. At that time, I think all the men that were there were just anxious to help. They worked tremendous. When we put up the perma? nent seal, we only put them up so far, and then we had to get in communication with the fellows up above, and they had to do the same thing we were doing. You couldn't build a seal right to the top without the other one, because you might have an explo? sion. Different levels. We were down below and somebody'd be up at the top. Same mine, but they are, oh, maybe a thousand feet a- way--we were on the intake side, and they were on the return side. If you sealed one without sealing the other one, you could have an explosion. So we left about a foot from the top. This was mostly all stone dust, bags of stone dust, just packing them one on top of the other. Then we got word, within two minutes you've got to close the top in. At the same time. When you put the last one on here and the last one up there, everybody left, went out and got in the rake to go to the surface. Leaving the mine, the superintendent stopped the rake. He said, "I want 4 volunteers to come in here with me. It could make or break the mine." Must have been a hundred men got out of the rake. He said, "Hold on now, I only want 4." They went in. And I heard him after that saying, "The men would go to hell with me that night, do anything I wanted," he said. "The best bunch of men I ever saw." I got Hyp?? We'll change your flying habits to Toronto Our times are ght for you. Our connections in Atlantic Canada : more convenient than any other airline. Take advantage of 'ur full range >of discount fares, including our popular Red, White, and Blue Fare Saver Days and Atlantic Canada's only Stand-by, Walk-on Fares. If you've been using other airlines without thinking, break the habit. One flight is all it takes to switch. Departure times effective April 25. 1982 Call your travel agent or us at 564-4545 8*.' 5.1s g55 J '' S''' ' We re habit forminn t We're habit forming

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