FAIRVIEW, WV - A modified jet engine has
been used to successfully fight a West Virginia mine
fire that had been burning for nearly two months and was
the cause of 300 employees being temporarily laid off
when mine operations were idled. Positioned at the mouth
of the one of the mineshafts, the jet engine was used to
blow water vapor and inert gases into the mine to
smother the fire by creating an inert environment
underground. It was the first time the technique had
been tried in the United States.
"As the Department of Energy continues its broad
support of clean coal technologies, I never envisioned
that we'd be using a jet engine to put out a mine fire,"
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. "But this
achievement shows that we can make use of
non-traditional techniques, as well as our more formal
research programs, to provide a cleaner environment
through the clean coal program."
The Department of Energy and the National Institutes
of Occupational Safety and Health provided a portion of
the costs to test the innovative fire suppression system
at CONSOL Energy's Loveridge Mine near Fairview, in
Marion County, W.Va.
By displacing oxygen in the mine with inert exhaust
gases, the technique shaved months off the conventional
method of sealing a mine and letting a fire burn itself
out. At the Loveridge Mine it took 10 days of
continuously blowing the jet exhaust into the mine to
create an inert atmosphere underground. By extinguishing
the fire through use of the jet engine, miners were able
to reenter the mine more than 12 months sooner than if
other fire-suppression techniques had been used.
The jet engine system was brought to West Virginia
from Australia by a team from the Queensland Mine Rescue
Service Ltd. Earlier versions of the technique have been
used in other parts of the world, and a similar concept
was employed in Kuwait to extinguish oil well fires
following the Gulf War a decade ago.
The fire had begun on February 13 when a trash-filled
mine car ignited near the bottom of a sloped entry shaft
about 940 feet below the surface. Approximately 100
employees were safely evacuated from the mine.
"As we developed our firefighting and re-entry plan
with state and federal agencies, we looked beyond the
traditional approach of simply waiting for the fire area
to cool. We determined that the safest and most
expeditious alternative was to utilize the jet engine
technology," said J. Brett Harvey, president and CEO of
CONSOL Energy. "We appreciate the support of DOE in
helping to bring this technology to our mine."
The jet engine and associated equipment - which
together weighed more than five tons - arrived at the
mine site on Friday, April 4. After engineers assembled
it, the engine was turned on later that day. Employing a
recirculating water-cooled afterburner, the jet engine
was run at about half speed so as not to develop thrust.
It blew roughly 64,000 cubic feet of water vapor,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide into the mine.
On April 14, mine rescue teams wearing self-contained
breathing packs entered the mine to begin exploration
and rehabilitation of the fire area.
Safety experts from the federal Mine Safety and
Health Administration, West Virginia's Office of Miners'
Health, Safety and Training, and the United Mine Workers
of America joined with CONSOL Energy to monitor the
effort. The joint team approved the firefighting plan as
well as plans to reenter and restart mine operations.
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