HELPER -- Forty-six people were able to escape without injury when the Willow Creek Mine north of here caught fire last month, in part because of a new type of pager system.
The system allowed a mine-evacuation plan to be carried out before tunnels were filled with smoke from the fire that ignited on the day before Thanksgiving."The miners are trained for stuff like this to make sure they have everything in order," said Mike Dmitrich, spokesman for the mine owner, Cyprus Plateau Mining Corp. "There wasn't any panic at all."
The miners were safely evacuated within about 20 minutes. Smoke from the fire also forced the evacuation of about a dozen people -- mostly elderly residents and people with respiratory problems -- from this central Utah town, about 92 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
It could have been much worse, said Helper Mayor Mike Dalpiaz, recalling the Dec. 19, 1984, fire at the Wilberg Mine in Emery County that killed 27 miners.
"Wilberg was on everybody's mind for every second of every breath," said Dalpiaz, president of the United Mine Workers of America district that includes Utah. "It was such a relief that everybody got out."
The paging system went into effect after one worker saw flames and telephoned a dispatcher to get everyone out of the mine. Randy Cooper, who took the call, typed an evacuation message into a computer system.
Within seconds, the system relayed the warning on a magnetic field through the mountain -- radio waves cannot make that penetration -- to all areas of the mine.
The signal was picked up by explosive-proof PEDs -- personal emergency devices -- attached to the cap lights and belt batteries of foremen and miners working in isolated areas. The recipients' cap lamps flashed, alerting them that a message was being displayed on pager-like units hooked to their belts.
"(Miners) use it on a day-to-day basis. This is the first time it's been used for a mine-wide alarm," said Dave Hinkins, owner of Industrial Electric in Orangeville, Emery County, which sold the system to Cyprus Plateau and a half-dozen other Utah mines since it was introduced several years ago in Australia.
"Normally, if someone's wife is sick or their kid gets hurt, they use this to get them a message," Hinkins said. "And they can send in Jazz scores during the evening so guys don't have to call in all the time. That's the aspect we've been selling it on. But now MSHA (U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration) is taking a look at it."
MSHA investigators and technical specialists are on site, working with the mine owner on a plan to get back inside the mine. Its entrance portals were packed with dirt and rock to cut off the flow of oxygen to the fire.
MSHA's initial investigation report classified the accident as a "methane ignition-explosion," referring to the volatile gas frequently encountered by mining operations in the Castle Gate area of Carbon County. A methane explosion in 1924 killed 172 miners at Utah Fuel Co.'s No. 2 Mine. Many are buried in a cemetery near the Willow Creek Mine.
A more definitive determination depends on investigators getting inside to study evidence such as burn and ash patterns, which could take days or weeks.
Meantime, Cyprus Plateau's full-time employees have been transferred to the company's Star Point Mine at Wattis, southwest of Price. Cyprus Plateau still must fulfill contracts to supply coal to the Intermountain Power Project, Nevada Power and other customers, so its Wattis mine will operate around the clock, Dmitrich said.