Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Disaster Management and Emrgency Preparedness in Mines
Disaster Management and Emrgency Preparedness in Mines
Disaster Management and Emrgency Preparedness in Mines
By
PRITISH DAS
712mn1104
Department of Mining Engineering
Disaster Management
Introduction:
When a disaster occurs in a mine it leaves little or no time to discuss the steps to deal
with the situation. In most cases the work done in first few hours is the most vital for
saving lives. Decision taken on the spur of the moment will not bring in as good result as
properly planned procedures. Advance planning is the most logical way of minimising
the affects of a sudden and drastic emergency, the intensity of an emergency in mine and
the procedures to deal with it in the best possible manner.
The intensity of any emergency or disaster can be minimized by adopting a properly
designed emergency response plan, which details the organization required to deal with
an emergency in time and the procedures to deal with it in the best possible manner.
The object of a disaster management plan is to protect the employees against loss of life
or damage to property by;
Making the employees and response authority aware of hazards within the work
domain.
Developing a co-ordinated emergency response which effectively handles accidents
that could develop into major disasters.
Periodic Mock drills and training the employees on how to act in the event of a
disaster emergency.
Definition of a Mining Disaster: Disaster in general is a event or series of event, which
gives rise to casualties and damage or loss of life, properties , environment on such a
scale which is beyond the normal capacity of the affected community to cope with.
Disaster is also sometimes described as a catastrophic situation in which the normal
pattern of life or eco-system has been disrupted and extra ordinary emergency
interventions are required to save and preserve lives and environment.
A mining disaster is defined as accident with 10 or more fatalities. However, it may
also be defined as an unexpected, sudden occurrence, including in particular a major
emission of gas, fire, explosion or inundation, resulting from abnormal developments in
course of mining activity, leading to a serious dangers to workers, public or the
environment, whether immediate or delayed, inside or outside the mine or involving one
or more hazardous substances.
There may also be an emergency which may not cause loss of life, but may result in
trapping of workers, or affecting persons requiring emergency actions as in case of a
disaster. These incidents have potentials of a disaster in the mine for e.g., (Jharia fire,
subsidence under built up areas, etc. has similar disaster potentials). The whole cycle of
disaster management can be depicted by following figure.
Table:- Cause wise disasters (ten or more than ten fatalities) in Indian coal mines
International Practices:
International mineral producing countries operate regional mine rescue training facilities.
They are centrally located in the middle of coal fields/Mineral industry or between
groups of mines to keep travel time from each other mine to a minimum.
Highly specialized and all inclusive centres exist in USA, South Africa, Australia,
China, UK, Germany and Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland and the Ukraine). They provide
physical, and sometimes rigorous, hands on training in mines or simulated real life
environments, the full time staff at these facilities are highly experienced mine
emergency response specialists and provided expertise and leadership during mine
emergences. It is common in some countries to utilize specialized medical personnel as
full time staff and trained members of the mine rescue teams.
Emergency readiness module for mines:
In the event of an emergency in a mine, the emergency response experts were
immediately summoned to the affected mines. All the work of dealing with emergency is
carried out under the control, supervision and direction of the incident command centre.
Mine rescuers travel miles in the dark, navigating underground mine workings filled with
debris, amid poisonous and explosive gases trying to find missing miners or recover those
who have died. The dangerous work they do after mine fires, explosions or cave-ins is
challenging, grueling, and remarkable. They continue their services till the mine is
completely recovered.
An Integrated Emergency Response System (IERS) is practiced to deal emergencies of
diverse kind in mining industries. This system mainly consists of four components,
namely
1. Preparation and Prevention: This includes Risk assessment exercise to identify
the hazards in a mine. Hazards so identified be ranked and a series of controls and
procedures be outlined to keep the same within acceptable level.
2. Detection and Classification: This includes regular inspections to be made as per the
established protocol to identify the possible sources of hazards and initiate remedial
measures by activating mechanism of control.
3. Response and mitigation: the twin philosophy of Self Rescue and Aided Rescue
form the basis of a response and mitigation scheme.
4. Re-entry and Recovery: As per devised rescue protocols and guidelines, the whole
event of re-entry and recovery was undertaken. The hierarchy of response actions
begins with self-escapes and then first responders and finally mine rescue teams. If
there is a breakdown in self-escape and first responders are not successful, then the
deployment of mine rescue teams, under control of incident command centres, is
necessary for a safe rescue to be accomplished.
Your facility
The area adjacent to your facility
The community
The region
Estimate the probability of the emergency happening. Though this is a purely subjective rating
the outcome is useful. What is the probability of the disastrous 98 Ice Storm happening again?
Using a scale of 1 to 5, assess the possibility of death or injury in the Human Impact column.
How were humans affected by the ice storm?
Do the same thing for property impact. What affect did the ice storm have on property in Eastern
Ontario? What was the impact in Quebec? Consider such things as costs for asset replacement or
repair as well as the cost for temporary maintenance.
Evaluate Business Impact in the next column. Consider lost production and sales. How did the
ice storm affect the maple syrup industry in Eastern Ontario and Quebec?
Finally, assess both internal and external resources and their ability to respond to an emergency.
Are your own staff trained and equipped to respond to an emergency? Can and will first
responders such as fire and police be able to come to your assistance effectively? The large
number of vehicles caught on Highway 401 when the ice storm hit overwhelmed the ability of
police, fire, ambulance and tow truck services to respond to the inevitable accidents.
Add the scores across the row to total the score for each emergency scenario. The lower the score
the better. This isnt a scientific analysis but the results will help in planning your own
companys approach to preparing for and dealing with emergencies.
4. Identify emergency resources
The location of the mine, pit or quarry will have a great deal to do with the emergency resources
available and the time required for them to respond. Surface mines located near cities will have
better and quicker access to resources than mines located in rural or remote locations.
More than listing telephone numbers in the emergency procedure, many companies maintain an
active relationship with some or all emergency services, providing them with site plans, plant
tours and notification when there are major changes to plant, process or materials. Many fire
departments, for example, would welcome an opportunity to conduct a training session at a pit or
quarry within their service area.
Resources include but may not be limited to:
Fire: may be full-time professional fire fighters; part-time volunteer departments;
company employees trained and equipped to fight fires
Police: OPP; RCMP; municipal or First Nation police forces
SAR Search and Rescue: teams of trained and equipped volunteers prepared to search
for missing persons or respond to other types of emergencies
Medical: provincial or local ambulance service; hospital; local doctor; air ambulance;
company employees trained and equipped to provide first aid
Municipal government, public works department: may provide assistance with situations
involving water, sewer, snow removal or other services may already have plans in place
for large scale emergencies
Electrical utility: Ontario Hydro and/or municipal or regional electricity utility may
provide assistance with situations involving overhead or underground power lines
Natural gas utility may be required to assist with situations involving natural gas and
related equipment
Aggregate Resources Act and Regulations: legislation which regulates the establishment
and operation of aggregate-based industries in the province
Technical Standards and Safety Act: legislation governing all aspects of handling, storing
and transporting fuels in Ontario.
An editorial review of advanced plan materials by an editor who was not involved in the
development or writing of the content will help to ensure consistency of presentation style while
fixing annoying typographic and grammatical errors.
The approvals process should include critical review of the content and may result in one or
more section revisions. This is the time to get these details right before the plan is published and
put into effect. The plan should also include a process for information input and future plan
upgrades as required.
Finally, with full management approval, the plan may be published.
www.wcdm.info/Compenium/other/34.DMAftab%20Ahmad..pdf
www.workplacesafetynorth.ca%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fpdfs%2FMR
%20Emergency%252020Response%2520Planning%2520for%2520Surface
%2520Mines.pdf