A total of 33 teams participated in the contest, which was held on June 5-7 at the Jerry L Stewart Ohio Mine Safety Training Center in Harrison County.

They represented operators in Ohio as well as Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Murray Energy’s Ohio Valley Coal Powhatan No. 6 mine rescue team won first place for its rescue skills.

It is the first time since 1999 a home state team has won the top prize in the 31-year-old event.

Six of the 33 participating teams were from Ohio, while two others from the group placed in the top 10, including Hopedale Mining in ninth and American Energy’s Century Red team – also from Murray Energy – in the 10th spot.

“We were pleased to host the Ohio Valley Mine Rescue Contest at our Cadiz facility for the third year,” Ohio Department of Natural Resources mineral resources management chief Lanny Erdos said.

“It’s a great opportunity for Ohio’s mine rescue teams.

“It was especially gratifying to honor the … No. 6 mine team with a first place ranking.”

In addition to mine rescue, the competing teams also were put to the test for breathing apparatus troubleshooting, first aid and pre-shift contests.

All of the events were judged by the US Department of Labor, the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the ODNR.

In all, 13 first aid teams and benchmen from Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland and Virginia participated in the respective first aid and bench competition.

Consol Energy, Alliance Coal, Murray Energy and Arch Coal were among the companies represented.

An official said the National Mine Rescue Association’s Post 6 region, which hosted the event, was happy with the results.

“ODNR’s facility allows the competition to offer teams realistic and challenging mine rescue simulations,” president Ron Glasgow said.

“ODNR’s facility allows us to better train our miners for mine emergencies and we appreciate its availability to other mine rescue teams.”

Under US Mine Safety and Health Administration mandates, miners must participate in two certified contests each year.

Glasgow said they were “always learning”

“We're trying new technologies and learning better ways to establish communication,” he said.

“No team got a perfect score but they all finished the problem that was put in front of them [and were] judged on what they did.”

See the above PDF for the full results from the Post 6 competition.