“It’s been observed that companies possessing written emergency plans have a leg up on those without,” said McGee.

McGee said US rescue teams could do little more to better prepare themselves for emergency situations, and instead improvements could instead be made in mine’s holding adequate plans to deal with emergencies.

McGee said a good mix of practical and theoretical mine rescue training was the answer to a well trained team.

“All of the training which mine rescue teams receive lends itself to preparation for real life emergencies, whether the training includes classroom presentations, live fire training, mock emergency exercises, or contest preparation,” he said.

“Blending the various methods is probably the key here. All of any form of training, such as competition for example, should be avoided. I feel competitions are a tremendous tool for team development, but contest training alone usually only serves to produce good contest teams.”

An emergency response template is available from Pennsylvania emergency response and training manager Rob McGee at usmra@usmra.com