Emergency Response Teams from Nutrien Lanigan spent April 26 in heated competition at their Emergency Response competition.
Four teams of six competed in six events, including a written exam, first aid, fire fighting, and a mine problem. The winner of the competition will represent Nutrien Lanigan at the 50th Annual Emergency Response Mine Rescue Skills in Moose Jaw on June 2.
By the time all the marks were tallied up, Mark Nivon’s Blue Team would take home the win and will represent Nutrien Lanigan.
The rescue teams have been training all year to prepare for the competition, says General Manager at Nutrien Lanigan Rob Jackson, not only working their regular jobs at Nutrien Lanigan, but also training on fire fighting, first aid, and mine rescue.
“They do quite a bit of studying to know the details of all that and all that gets combined to tally up for the overall winner,” says Jackson.
It was a challenging competition during the fire fighting portion of the competition, says retired Nutrien Lanigan Emergency Responder, Rod Greve, who judged the fire fighting element, which took place at the Lanigan Lion’s Campground.
Team Captains make the decision on how to fight the fires with limited resources so they are testing how they work to best distribute those resources.
High wind conditions made it a challenge for the competitors to extinguish the three fire simulations, but Greve says that they are still able to judge technique, how the competitors handle their equipment, and how the group works together as a team.
“It’s important that each out shows they’re able to do the job they’ve been trained to do.”
Underground fires can be more challenging than above ground conditions, with smoke and heat having no where to go, says Greve. That causes problems in an underground situation since the people underground cannot escape to above ground.
“In a building, most people can get out. Fire alarm goes off you leave the building. In a mine, fire alarm goes off and you have to go and hide from the fire,” says Greve.
Fires underground have to be extinguished quickly or else the heat can become too much to handle, he says.
“It’s not very long before you can’t fight it, you can’t put it out. Time is critical to do that. You see the fire you have to respond to it quickly.”
The Emergency Response crew are trained to respond to everything at Nutrien Lanigan, from above ground to below ground problems, says Jackson, with coverage around the clock for both kinds of problems.
Nutrien Lanigan has four teams of seven available to respond to problems. The competition was a great way for their newest members to have some practice that is close to a real emergency.
Many of the members of the emergency response team are also members of their local volunteer fire departments, says Jackson, and much of the training that takes place is transferable from the mine into the community.
“It’s actually a really good mix,” says Jackson. “Some of them get additional training through work from the mine site when they go into the community so it’s a win-win so they hone skills on both sides.”
The competition was open to the community and this was a great way for the community to see what is involved in emergency response at the mine.
