A Kirkland Lake team dug in to prevent a Timmins mine from taking home back-to-back provincial titles.
Agnico Eagle's Macassa Mine won the Ontario Mine Rescue competition held last week in Thunder Bay. The last time the mine took home the golden helmets was in 1986.
Lake Shore Gold Timmins, who won the 2023 event, were the runners-up, with members also picking up individual awards.
“We’re happy to announce that all teams completed the problem safely and successfully,” said Shawn Rideout, chief mine rescue officer, in a news release.
“There is only one winner, but in a sense, all volunteers have won something – they all persevered through the problem, learned from it, and are better first responders because of it. At the end of the day, that’s the goal of mine rescue competitions.”
Eight teams, the top in each district across the province, competed at the championship. It's held every year to evaluate mine rescue volunteers on essential emergency response skills such as firefighting and first aid using live-action scenarios and a theory test.
The scenario at this year's event was a crash. Miners had to extricate two casualties, then navigate through a complex simulated mine to find a fire that had been put out by a foam generator. At this point, organizers say that the teams saw smoke coming from a vent and used their observation skills to search for clues in the dark, smokey area to find the mystery fire and extinguish it.
The members of the winning team from Agnico Eagle Macassa Mine are captain Nicholas Perrier, #2 Jackson Lafrance, #3 Jean-Francois Racine, #4 Denis Dion, vice captain Hubert Gour, #6 Carlie Dewar, #7 Colin Price, briefing officer April Belecque, coaches Jonathan Boutin and Cliff McGill, and mine rescue officers Nick Schwehr and Shawn Shail.
The individual award winners are:
- Individual Technician Competition
- 1st – Dan Rioux, Glencore Sudbury INO Fraser and Nickel Rim South Mines
- 2nd – Kyle Oullette, Alamos Island Gold Mine
- 3rd – Nick Fram, Vale Sudbury West Mines
- Team Special Equipment Award – Canadian Gypsum Corporation Hagersville Mine
- Team First Aid Award – Lake Shore Gold Timmins
- Team Firefighting Award – Lake Shore Gold Timmins
- Briefing Officer Award – Tyler Williams, Lake Shore Gold Timmins
- Team Theory Exam Award – Glencore Sudbury INO
