**WORKPLACE SAFETY NORTH NEWS RELEASE**

Mine rescue teams across Ontario, including Timmins and Kirkland Lake districts will mark the 90th anniversary of Ontario Mine Rescue by testing their emergency response skills and knowledge in district mine rescue competitions May 7 to 9.

Seven teams from Timmins and Kirkland Lake District will compete at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex, in Timmins Wednesday, May 8, and Thursday, May 9.

Competing will be:

  • Kirkland Lake Gold, Holt McDermott Mine
  • Kirkland Lake Gold, Macassa Mine
  • Alamos Gold, Young-Davidson Mine
  • McEwen Mining, Black Fox Mine
  • Tahoe Canada, Timmins West/Bell Creek Mine
  • Glencore, Kidd Operations
  • Newmont Goldcorp, Porcupine Gold Mines

The equipment technician competition will be Tuesday, May 7, at Northern College for Timmins District technicians, and at the Kirkland Lake Mine Rescue Substation for Kirkland Lake District technicians.

Ontario Mine Rescue was established in 1929, a year after an underground fire at the Hollinger Mine in Timmins claimed the lives of 39 miners.

Over the ensuing years, OMR has evolved from a fire service to full emergency response service for all underground emergencies.

The competitions organized by Ontario Mine Rescue, a part of Workplace Safety North, will test the teams’ knowledge, firefighting skills, first aid response, use of emergency equipment, and decision-making ability under stress in a simulated underground emergency.

The public and media are welcome to attend district competitions to give communities a chance to see highly trained volunteers in action.

Other competitions will take place across Ontario on the same dates:

  • Southern District – Goderich Memorial Arena, Goderich
  • Sudbury & Onaping districts – McClelland Community Centre, Copper Cliff
  • Red Lake & Thunder Bay districts – Cochenour Arena, Red Lake
  • Algoma District – Michipicoten Memorial Community Centre, Wawa

The winner of each district competition will compete in the 2019 Provincial Mine Rescue Competition, June 4 to 7, at Newmont Goldcorp’s Red Lake Gold Mines in Red Lake. Mine rescue competitions, which started in Ontario in 1950, are as much intensive learning opportunities as a chance to test emergency response capabilities. The competitions ensure that mine rescue volunteers across the province are trained to the same high standards. Mine rescue team members, the backbone of Ontario Mine Rescue, are volunteer mine workers trained by Mine Rescue Officers to respond to all types of mine emergencies including fires, explosions and falls of ground.

Under the authority of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and headquartered in Sudbury, Ontario Mine Rescue staffs, equips and maintains a network of mine rescue stations across the province that ensure mines within a specified geographic area have adequate emergency response capability.

Workplace Safety North provides products and services to promote workplace health and safety in the mining, forestry, and paper, printing and converting industries, as well as workplaces across Ontario.

 

 

–With files from Timmins Today

Filed under: Local News