Mine stages disaster

AVERY ISLAND — Cargill Salt officials huddled in a control room Thursday, trying to figure out how to deal with an out-of-control fire that trapped 10 workers in the mine.

The fire wasn’t real and miners weren’t actually in danger.

The incident was all part of a crisis management training exercise designed to test the company’s ability to react to a disaster.

“This is a practice so we know how to deal with situations in the future,” senior mine engineer Gil Elrod said. “We’re hoping to refine our skills in dealing with situations that would require mine rescue teams if something of that nature would occur at our plant.”

For purposes of the exercise, officials pretended a fire broke out on a diesel delivery truck near the production shaft.

Firefighters were called to extinguish the “fire,” but not before heavy smoke poured into the mine.

Eighteen employees were evacuated, but nine others were forced to take refuge in a shelter 1,600 feet underground. One other miner was unaccounted for.

The exercise required the management team to coordinate with officials from corporate headquarters and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Before they could send rescue teams into the mine, they had to have a rescue plan approved by MSHA.

Local media played along with the exercise, prodding mine officials for information during the simulated disaster. Even more realism was added when a cameraman from a local television station arrived at the mine, apparently believing the drill was an actual disaster.

“We actually take these exercises very seriously, and we try to simulate as close to reality as we can,” Elrod said. “We want to be prepared for any emergency that might happen at our facility, whether it’s on the surface or underground.”

Elrod said the mine stages disaster drills about once a year. He said officials planned to critique the exercise once it was complete, but he was pleased with the effort overall.

“It is highlighting some areas that we need to tighten up on, but that’s what these types of drills do,” Elrod said. “I don’t think you can train too much for situations of this nature.”

Eight workers have died in the mine in the past 100 years, most recently in 1998. Plant manager Doug Johnson said the mine has gone more than five years and 2 million man hours without a lost-time accident.

“It’s not what I would really call hazardous or dangerous (work), but you never know, so safety is No. 1,” Johnson said. “We’d rather not produce one single pound of salt than get somebody hurt.”

While management teams above the ground dealt with the crisis, it was business as usual for workers down below. Johnson said salt production didn’t skip a beat during the simulation.