A fire that has broken out in a Warwickshire coal mine could burn for months, according to reports.
UK Coal revealed Monday that a fire had broken out at a depth of 540m in the Daw Mill Colliery, which was already at risk of closure. Now the BBC is reporting that the fire could last for months. The coal mine’s future has been put at serious risk.
The fire broke out in the tailgate of a coal face around 8km from the bottom of the main shaft at around 15.30 on Friday. Ninety-two underground workers were safely evacuated, with a specialised team of 14 staying behind to fight the fire. They were also evacuated later in the evening, and operators then switched off ventilation to the mine in an attempt to starve the fire of oxygen.
In a press release, Kevin McCullough, chief executive for UK Coal, stressed how large a fire this was.
This fire is on a scale not seen for decades. I want to thank everyone in the mine that day for their professionalism and commitment.
From the mine workers that fought the fire initially to the mine management team that evacuated all workers safely — everyone played their part. The suddenness of the fire and its ferocity is something we train for and hope never to see, so the safe evacuation of over 100 miners is something the whole team can be proud of.
According to UK Coal, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has conducted regular inspections of the mine. The latest inspection took place just two days before the fire broke out. The HSE is already investigating the cause.
Carbon monoxide levels in the mine rose from 7 parts per million (ppm) to more than 10,000ppm in the four hours after the fire broke out. However, “there is no risk or impact from the incident to residents living close to the site,” UK Coal said.
Andre Mackintosh, a UK Coal representative, told the BBC:
When we go back in to inspect, as soon as you put ventilation back it’s like returning to a barbeque, the potential for it to reignite is quite huge. It could be a very long time till we can get in.
There is now the real prospect of losing at least 650 jobs at the Colliery. McCullough said this blaze is far worse than the last one on this scale in the UK, which happened 20 years ago at Grimethorpe Colliery and ultimately led to that mine’s closure.
The Grimethorpe Colliery’s brass band, the inspiration for the 1996 film Brassed Off, has continued playing since the fire that closed the pit.
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“UK Coal revealed Monday” – not being a journalist, I am obviously unaware of how you are trained these days. However, this sounds particularly American to my ear.
We’re a Global site with a Global audience, but apologies if it sounds a bit US to your ears, CAB. Any thoughts about the story though?
It will no doubt be devastating to the workers who lose their jobs becuse of the fire, the problem I have with this is that although no major fire has occured like this for 20 years, it seems there was no way of dealing with it back then and there is no way of dealing with it now! How is it that with the wonders and improvements in fire suppression and fire fighting over the last 2 decades, they are still no better off? .. I find it difficult to believe they couldn’t contain the fire and then even more surprise they cannot extinguish… Read more »
Finbar: my thoughts exactly. I had a discussion that went exactly the same way this morning with some colleagues. Obviously, they started trying to fight it, but then when the fire became too much the only tactic they have left is cut off the venitilation and seal it off. Incredible.
Thats really horrifc. I understand that the fire has posed enromous difficulty to fire fighters. But one thing boggles me that at the depth of 540 meters…how come we are still unable to strave it from oxygen. It’s encouraging that human lives are saved with the mangificant efforts of rescue services. we hope that this fire gets extinguished at the earliest so that the future of mine does not go in dark !!!
It was confirmed today that most of the 650 staff will be made redundant and the mine will close: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-21696875
Thats so unfortunate … I am worried about the future of 650 staff workers would be made redundant. I hope some concrete lesson to be drawn to avoid the recurrence of similar catastrophe in future. As we have seen in the past that almost 85% of such accidents are caused by human negligence or poor infrastructure of equipment installed.