Combating Mine Fires with the Aid of Inflatable Devices

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chasko, Linda L. ; Conti, Ronald S. ; Pro, R. W.
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh Research Center, conducted full-scale studies in the Lake Lynn Experimental Mine with lightweight inflatable devices that can be used for rapidly isolating underground mine fires. The inflatable feed-tube partition (IFTP) is a lightweight, rectangular inflatable bag that can be used by firefighters to rapidly close large openings (within 15 minutes), such as those in underground mines, and to simultaneously provide a feed- tube for high expansion foam generators. This allows firefighting foam to freely flow to the fire site and control or extinguish the fire. Results showed that a 2,800-L/s diesel-powered, high-expansion foam generator with the IFTP, could push a foam plug 245m through an entry 2.1m high by 5.8m wide with a 4.3 pct rise in elevation, before the foam generator failed to push the foam plug further. A second device, the positive-pressure, inflatable walk-through escape device with its "passthrough" feature, allows extra time for personnel evacuation by isolating a smoke-filled entry from fresh air. This escape device would be strategically placed in a mine entry, and then be either manually or remotely deployed during a mine fire. This device successfully isolated smoke-filled entries from fresh air, and mine personnel effectively passed through the device to fresh air or back into the smoke-filled entries. Both inflatable devices have shown merit in providing a relatively rapid method for isolation of a mine fire and for use with a foam generator for fire suppression, or for personnel escape. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Fires Mining Occupational Health Safety Smoke
• Keywords:
  Escape-systems Fire-extinguishing Systems Fire-fighting-equipment Mine-fires Smoke-control Underground-mining
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  441-449
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20000144
• Citation:
  Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Fire Research and Engineering, 1997 Aug; :441-449
• Contact Point Address:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Fire Research and Engineering, (ICFRE2)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ded4c3a9f2a40a95e71f5b79a28b94902df881e26e5fc613f632a516952022f26293dc18802463d50064392696163e3ee38388c4cc1a562bbc9a3993cf7825bb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/220366/cdc_220366_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 325.96 KB ]