We had a few in management at our mine in Ireland that should never have been in their position they nearly cost the loss of live due to being total idiots that part of the mine was flooded and one of the high management said it would never happen.And due to the relaxed rules at the mine nearly cost me my life when a mine shift boss took explosive and put them all around were he was and let them off just 30 metres away from where I was driving a jeep and it nearly killed me was in hospital for ages and have had numerous operations all down to safety issues
I have to say, your videos are some of my favorites. Very well put together, very well spoken, the background music is a great match, no fluff, no unnecessary drama. Just facts, and very respectful to the miners lost. Hopefully, others will like and comment to get you recommended to more of RU-vid.
Thank you @robertschemonia5617. No one, well not many people would sit down and read the inquiry reports, especially from 20, 30, 50 or 100 years ago. Even if they did they probably couldn't imagine the conditions or what they were talking about. My hope is that by making them into short videos anyone can learn the lessons without having to be a mine manager or a mining person to understand what happened. You should try it in Virtual Reality. After making the mines as a computer model. Alan @ArtofMining has made the mines into Virtual Reality. It is beyond comprehension. Thank you for your encouragement. I wish someone (like the Government, Industry or just anyone) would sponsor us to make these. BUT alas, we do it because we believe in it. Until every worker is home safe and healthy every day there is still a lot of work to do. Thanks again. Mark Parcell.
@mineaccidents2546 Well then. I know what I will be doing later this week! If you haven't seen it, I also recommend checking out the USCSB channel. They have some awesome, fully animated videos similar to yours, but with chemical "accidents" and whatnot. They don't upload often, but they are top notch. The area I live in, Southern Illinois, USA, is littered with long abandoned coal mines, and quite a few active mines. Luckily, the seams around here aren't very gassy. My dad actually drives a semi truck hauling coal from some local mines to terminals on the Mississippi River. I have worked at places repairing those trucks, and I have even worked at the mines as a contractor driving a water wagon to wet the roads to keep the dust down. There are some really neat maps and mining reports from the late 1800s to the 1960s for this area that are free and highly detailed. Another neat fact, there was a brick plant in Murphysboro, Illinois, that produced bricks to line the Panama Canal. My great grandfather used to tell me about he and his friends going swimming out at the old plant. Now, the entire area is reclaimed. The old reports are a neat read themselves. They have tonnage mined per year, geologic issues found, all kinds of cool stuff. I'll see if I can find a link to them for you to take a look at sometime.
going to be interesting when they finally put the fire out at grosvenor now reventilating it could also make it catch on fire again thats interesting, i rlly dont see it opening back up for a long time but i could be wrong
Thank you for doing the video is so well done. I was one of the people on the picket line at Pike River as I live near Greymouth. We stop them from sealing the mine at least until they entered the drift… My father who died in 2020, was a minor at Liverpool, Rewanui and then strongman coalmine on the West Coast. My father was a deputy and shotfirer. When he heard what was happening at Pike long before the explosion was horrified and expressed many of the opinions brought up in your video… He said there is no way he would ever go down there… So, to many of the old-timers said the same thing… Particularly when the office of the mine inspector, was taken over by work safe… While I could say a lot more the point is thank you for the video…. Let’s hope the lessons are learned… _ Graeme Axford - Greymouth...
So sad and yet preventable had all correct procedures been followed especially after so many bad reports from the people underground , I know it won't bring the poor souls back but some people should be doing lengthy jail terms for their inaction
Something that doesn’t make sense to me is: why is the brattice still perfectly intact? I know it’s FRAS, but it still melts, and it would be all over the place after an explosion, but it’s all just hanging like normal, like a normal day in a coal mine.
1. The video is taken after the explosion as part of the investigation. The brattice and ventilation would have been restored. 2. The flame front only extended down the face (against the ventilation to approximately 100 chock). It did not come to the maingate where the brattice is. 3. If you go to the Grosvenor MIne page in the Mine Accident and Disaster Database www.mineaccidents.com.au there is a report by Murray Nystrom who was the fire investigator. He took actual photos of the flame damage which allowed him to determine the explosion characteristics. You can see those photos there. The pressure wave was weak. The flame duration relatively short but still tragic for the workers who were on the face. You can see the actual effects of the flame in the Fire Investigator's Report. The Brattice didn't get exposed to the flame, it didn't melt.
@@mineaccidents2546 nice to know. Thanks for the explanation. A brattice bag on pogo’s isn’t resilient at the best of times, let alone during an explosion, I had just assumed that it would be strewn everywhere. I’ve seen em get torn to shreds just from closing a set of machine doors, the sudden change in ventilation can easily tear down a bag.
This was a serious disaster caused by poor mining practice and planning on the part of he mine management. Despite the previous history of spontaneous combustion in this seam . indeed in the very district where they were working, they left a thick section of roof coal to collapse in behind them as they withdrew mining pillars and the subsequent difficulty of properly ventilating the goaf, all giving perfect conditions for the coal to fire, a gas explosion to ignite and to then develop into a full dust explosion. In the UK, at that time, it was an absolute must that emergency stopping sites were constructed, including all the keyed in block work, as roads into the district were developed, and prior to mining coal. All the necessary materials were stockpiled on the fresh air side and as near as possible to the stopping site and kept there while the district was mined. This is basic common sense mining. I have worked to build such stoppings in similar circumstances, and believe me, we were glad materials were to hand and we had a proper plan of work to go by. To delay sealing off to recover expensive equipment is nothing less than a crime in my mind and despite pressures that would likely have been brought to bear,, I would not have hesitated to seal off. I pray that the lessons paid for by these poor fellows lives will, at least, save others.
soldiers arent the only ones with PTSD. For a long time more men were were killed in mines than wars..And the workers compensation was fck all..A miners life was worth around $200K or thereabouts....maybe less
Coal saved the forests, oil saved the whales and few of us would exist without both of them and both are greening the planet today. Time to phase them out but they got us here.
Brothers worked underground USA coal mines for a few yrs late 1970's early '80's, for adventure and good money, they lost a couple good men, friends and coworkers. Was far more dangerous back then in the US but interesting exciting place, dinosaur footprints in the shale overhead as though they just walked by, occasional beautiful fossil bone fragments and forest detritus common in the coal. Sometimes someone would extract a huge footprint, they were displayed outside homes in the area. Utah region.
@@lozarok Thanks. Character building. ;-) I went different direction but no less challenging and "character building", also in heavy industry up to present w no plans to quit, tho I've slowed down considerably. :D
I loved the job ! A different challenge every day ..... dirty, dangerous, hot, and bloody hard work .... but all with a band of mates who had your back every minute of every shift. Now all the pits are gone and the tight knit communities around them are diminished. Even now, old and half crippled, I miss it still .... and always will.
Hands up to you, you are willing to take responsibility for your actions. Your are a brave man. You lived to tell the tale and what a tale. I have a a mate who works in HS he has already put your video into his next lecture. You probably don't know it but you're story may have already saved lives and will for years to come save lives. Your story is not only relevant to the mining industry but to any industry. This video will be shown at my next tool box meeting that you can guarantee. Thanks for taking the time to share this. Am proud of you. Derek, Adelaide South Australia
I have to tell you the truth. I stumbled across your channel, and love your videos. I live in the Midwest of USA, and there are quite a few coal mines around me, and even more that closed in the early 1900s. I have always been fascinated by any kind of underground mining, and more in things like this. These videos make sure that those injured or killed will never be forgotten. There was actually a pretty bad explosion that killed 51 people in 1914, in one of the next towns over, Royalton, Illinois. You'd never know unless you stopped and looked and the small monument that's on the main street. Cheers man.
my FATHER..... william billy jenkinson was on the shift that had the disaster..... i also worked there 1981 to 1995.... i am retired now after 38 years underground....
Once a methane explosion develops into a full on dust explosion, there is no hope left of finding any survivors in the area affected. If you look at videos of the thermobaric bombs in use in Ukraine and multiply this force by ten, you are likely to still be short of the mark of a dust explosion in a confined tunnel.
@@mottthehoople693 .... indeed so. They will also have had the clothes blown off them, been severely burnt and shot down the tunnel like a cannonball ;<(
Coal dust explosions are unbelievably destructive. Once the flame front from an initial methane explosion raises a sufficient concentration of airborne coal dust particles, the system detonates with the flame front then travelling at 2500 -3000 feet per second and giving rise to pressures in excess of 1000 pounds per square inch .... sadly, un-survivable for anybody in it's path.
Good question, not easy to answer. I also doubt you would get a consensus or agreement. The majority of gas (approx 70%) came from the overlying seams. Mitigating gas controls and possibly the ventilation system increased the risk of spon com and there was an explosion. Of course the goaf is normally full of CH4. The trick is to exclude the oxygen and prevent Oxidation.
The SIS wells can only remove so much gas. But the Gas itself is not the issue, every pit has gas, the issue is the types of gas… if it’s all CH4 it’s not a problem, but if there’s O2 as well, then you have potential. When a panel is finished, it’s sealed up and pumped full of CH4 which basically inertizes it, so it can never ignite or explode, but if oxygen gets in there, then there’s a risk of combustion. Combine the high CH4 and the leakage of O2 into the goaf, as well as the heat generated from the PUR you have a really really bad circumstance.
@@lukea9873 yeah dunno, I don’t know anyone that works there these days, I work nearby at another pit. Lets hope something is done to prevent the same thing happening again..
I'm glad you recovered from this accident buddy. We all knowingly took risks and broke mining regulations and codes every shift to 'keep the coal flowing'.If you stuck strictly to the rules, you would never turn a tub of coal. .... You weighed the risk and relied on your judgement and experience to get you through. Most of us got away with it, but sadly some did not.
Wow, fantastic video Mark. I'd love to know the methane concentrations of the methane fuel rich experiments in determining the rate of fuel consumption. Keep doing your thing mate, you're an asset to us all.
