Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Fall 2019 Edition | Page 33

National Western Region Mine Rescue
Competition in Fernie, September 2017
Hosmer Portal, Mine Rescue, 1910.
Fred Alderson on the right.
Winning team from Fernie at the Canadian Mine
Rescue Competition in Trail, BC, June 1967
By 1910, self-contained breathing
apparatus became widely available and
greatly increased safety standards for
both trapped miners and rescuers. Since the inception of the NWRMC,
teams from the Elk Valley have won the
Surface Overall title at five of the past
six events.
In the early years of the 20th century,
mine rescue competitions and
demonstrations helped to motivate
rescue teams. The first competitions
were held during the First World War,
but shortages of manpower and supplies
prevented them becoming a regular
occurrence until several years later.
Regardless of the challenges, the Fernie
team travelled to Nanaimo for the first
international event in 1919 and placed
third. Competing teams (consisting of winners
of provincial competitions of the past
two years) will compete in Surface and/
or Underground Mine Rescue practices.
The Underground competition is
scheduled for Friday, September 6th
and will consist of a series of tasks
including fire, donning bench, obstacle
& recovery, smoke/search, practical
skills, first aid and a written component.
On Saturday, September 7th, teams
will compete in the Surface competition
in a series of tasks including fire, rope,
smoke/search, extrication, practical
skills, first aid and a written component.
Teams from the Elk Valley will compete
in this portion of the event, and
spectators will be able to observe parts
of the action at Fernie Memorial Arena.
Local teams went on to become fierce
competitors after those early years.
The Coal Creek team of the 1920’s
won the East Kootenay Competition
four times and the Vancouver Island
competition three times. In 1967 Bill
Milburn led the Michel team to win at
the regional, provincial and finally at the
National level at the Dominion Mine
Rescue Championships held in Trail.
With thanks to Mike Pennock and and
John Kinnear for extensive research on the
history of Mine Rescue in BC.
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