Monday, April 10

Elkhart mine fire prompts swift, multiagency response          Send a link to a friend

[APRIL 10, 2006]  A Mutual Aid Box Alarm sent fire departments from throughout Logan County to an Elkhart mine of Viper Coal on Saturday morning. Thick, black smoke billowed in the air after a 300-foot rubber conveyor belt at the base of a vertical shaft caught fire during a welding repair.

Six miners were in the shaft at the time. Four escaped via a horizontal shaft, and two stayed behind to fight the fire from the horizontal shaft position. The two miners who had stayed behind came out after 20 minutes with no apparent injuries.

Firemen first extinguished a blaze in the metal building over the shaft. Then they took shifts as a fire brigade drowning the fire in the shaft from above ground. On scene were fire departments from Elkhart, Mount Pulaski, Middletown, Waynesville, Cornland, Lincoln Rural and Williamsville. City of Lincoln was on standby.

The state's underground rescue team and Viper's own mine team worked below ground to clear and secure the mine.

Logan County Emergency Management Agency, Macon County Emergency Management Agency, Sangamon County Emergency Management Agency and Illinois Emergency Management Agency were on hand to assist coordination of agencies. Logan County Paramedics and Springfield Ambulance were also on hand to render assistance.

Temperatures in the shafts became hot enough to ignite small piles of coal dust, causing flashes.

The call-outs began at 10:10 a.m., and Elkhart firefighters, the last department on scene, left about 4 p.m. By 12:30 the blaze was under control and some fire departments were released to return to base.

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Logan County EMA director Dan Fulscher complimented Elkhart Fire Department Chief Mason Boyer of the lead agency. "His great coordination of incident chiefs, emergency managers, coal mine teams brought a great calm," Fulscher said. This was an incident that required coordination of local, county and state agencies, and Boyer did a great job.

No injuries were reported in the incident, and damage to the mine was limited to the structure above the shaft and the area of the fire.

The Viper team aided in finding the miners trapped in January in the West Virginia mine tragedy.

The Viper mine at Williamsville, formerly Turris Coal Company, is a subsidiary of the International Coal Group.

[Jan Youngquist]

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