[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.
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.
