Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – that’s what a team of fitters at a mine site found recently. While making their way back to the crib rooms for their lunch break, the team noticed smoke coming from the tail end of a conveyor so went to investigate.
When the team arrived at the scene, they found a small fire burning under the conveyor. Springing into action, they extinguished the fire with nearby extinguishers at the conveyor, and activated the emergency response.
While extinguishing the fire, two of the team walked the conveyor to ensure there was no other spot fires, or any potential areas on the ground or belt where one could start. As they neared the reclaimer, they noticed excess smoke and flames coming from the impact rollers under the reclaimer.
The team raced up to the first level to engage use of the wash down hose to try and extinguish the flames but realised they needed to be at ground level to do so. While one crew member made his way back downstairs to ground level the other fed the hose down to him to better position themselves to extinguish the fire. They doused the area with water for around 10 minutes, until emergency services arrived. The fire was well under control by this time.
“This section of the conveyor is critical to mining operations, as the reclaimer feeds this belt, which then transfers ore to the train load out (TLO),” said Project Manager, Mark Cox.
“Imagine what the outcome could have been had this gone unnoticed by our Monadelphous team members!?”
“They were calm, methodical and worked as a team in their approach to this real-life emergency – well done team!” finished Mark.
The Monadelphous fire fighters who saved the day were: (pictured from L-R) Andrew Muranda, Frank Oteri, Nathan Craddock, Kevin Bassinder, Shaun Nalder.