In 2011 after the UBB disaster the UBB seam Mine owners met with MSHA and State Mine Inspectors and they all agreed that the Long walls would each carry 4 caches of Rescuers and each Pillaring section would have them every 200 feet until they were 2 miles outby. This agreement is in place on EVERY Long wall and Pillaring section until we are done Pillaring and the Long wall is removed and brought out. Now in July or August when we are done and we go to the other side of the seam and start back in we will have new Roof Control plans Cache Location Distances and even Longwall criteria. It will remain that way in the UBB seam because as they said there will not be another 29 dead men. The sad thing is it was all preventable but Millionairs and MSHA got greedy and we are the ones that have to accept all of these stipulations. We all know that when the Mine explodes 1) Nobody will ever make it to a shelter. 2) a thousand Rescuers will not do anything and 3) The Air in a real Gassy mine will be the only thing that keeps you alive. We are not Bisthmus Coal. Ours is not for Steel. Ours goes straight to China and ALL that we can ship. BTW, UBB shut down with MSHA approval 2 of the fans for repairs and still allowed the mine to continue running. OOOOPPPPPSSS!!!

It’s really odd how wind can either enhance or muffle mine fan noise.If your downwind from the fan, it’s much louder than if the wind blows from you to the fan. I hunted elk a lot in Utah, there were two mines in two different canyons near the property I hunted. Some days, the fan noise was really loud, other days you could barely detect them running. Just depended on wind strength and direction.

Every miner employed underground needs to travel one of the two designated escapeways every 90 days. To travel 26 miles, you would need to average a pace of nearly 3 mph, and it would take nearly 9 hours to get outside. And three mph would be an extremely fast pace, traveling in the dark, with mining gear on. Everyone at the mine is able to walk 26 miles? How many here on Trapperman can walk 26 miles ?

I remember doing fifteen-mile forced marches with full gear in Kentucky in summer. I was young and in great shape. I remember it wore me out.

A 60 year old, slightly overweight smoker isn’t going three miles. Years ago, when we had a power outage, and the fan shut down, you had to evacuate the mine in 15 minutes on foot. ( everyone has back up generators now ). Only a few people were capable of duck walking the three miles to the outside.

It normally takes us two shifts.It is not the time that counts it is KNOWING where to go to get out. If your roof fall is in the Intake then you need to head to your secondary and know what your secondary is. The Bodies we found after the UBB blast were scattered everywhere even though the Siren to evacuate were blaring 10 minutes BEFORE the blast. They actually should have headed to the rescue Chamber and died there because I do not believe anyone or anything could have lived through that Destruction. IF is a big thing!! The Blast would have NEVER HAPPENED if MSHA would not have allowed operations to proceed with two fans down. THAT IS A FACT!!! The Benjamens won on that one and it cost 29 men their lives!!! And now the famous UBB seam has special regulations that change daily and all by the very people that enabled it. I should know since the month before the explosion I pulled my crew out because the Sniffers were going off full time and gas was building up and refused to let them go back until the curtains and air were right. I was written up for it. But that was swept under the rug as well.