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Mining & ExplosivesMine rescue team: from the briefing to the barricade: Smoke ahead: count off and hold or fasten to the lifeline
Smoke ahead: count off and hold or fasten to the lifeline. Miners are missing underground. Your five-person mine rescue team gets the briefing, checks every breathing apparatus and advances from the fresh air base: testing the gas at every opening, watching the roof, holding the lifeline in smoke, reaching the barricade without putting anyone at risk and bringing the survivors out. It is the problem every team works under the MSHA mine rescue contest rules.
Free to startThis scenario
- Smoke ahead: count off and hold or fasten to the lifeline.
The steps
- With every apparatus ready to wear, get the briefing: type of mine, explosive gas history, map accuracy, fan, guards posted, power cut, work done, agencies notified and reserve teams.
- Start the clock, date the board and study the problem and the map: solid lines are actual workings, dotted lines are projections.
- The captain checks each member's apparatus and a team member checks the captain's.
- Everyone on the team line; the captain signals advance, the rear captain relays it to the fresh air base, and the team moves when the signal comes back.
- Use the horn: 1 blast stop, 2 advance, 3 retreat, 4 distress.
- Stop within 50 feet of the cage or portal to check every member and apparatus, and repeat the check at least every 20 minutes.
- The captain checks the roof and ribs for loose ground out loud and warns the team every time.
- Test the gas rib to rib within 25 feet of every opening before passing it.
- Before entering smoke, check the apparatus or count off; in smoke, everyone holds or is fastened to the lifeline.
- Report every condition to the fresh air base over the communication system.
- Mark the date and the captain's initials at the farthest point of advance: stoppings, faces, deep water, falls, barricades, fires and survivors.
- At a barricade with a deadly atmosphere in front, ventilate first; with unknown conditions behind, build a temporary stopping and keep the opening small.
- Give survivors breathing protection to cross bad air, an approved full face-piece apparatus if unconscious, and the stretcher with a blanket if they cannot walk.
Safety rules that stop the station
- Never travel through water over knee deep.
- Never open a door or regulator without knowing its effect on the mine ventilation, unless a temporary stopping or regulator is up.
- Deadly atmosphere: oxygen below 17%, carbon monoxide over 1,200 ppm, hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide over 100 ppm, nitrogen dioxide over 20 ppm, carbon dioxide over 4%, or any smoke.
To pass
- Judges score the problem with discounts: every missed check, stop, test or signal costs points.
- Not stopping within 50 feet, entering smoke off the lifeline or walking into water over knee deep are discounted.
- Every opening checked before it is passed, and the map of what the team found completed.
Official source
Federal · MSHA Mine Rescue Contest Rules 2026
2026 Metal and Nonmetal Mine Rescue Contest Rules
MSHA publishes its mine rescue contest rules free: the briefing, the team procedures, the barricades and every discount.
Making Synapses is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by MSHA, NASA or any mine rescue association. Agency names are named only to describe the content.