The Lancashire Mines Rescue Service

SELF-RESCUERS.

M.S.A. TYPE W265 "SELF RESCUER" RESPIRATOR. (CUT AWAY SECTION SHOWING PATH OF INSPIRED AIR). * Respirator was housed in an hermetically sealed, stainless steel, case. Total weight of respirator and case - approx 1 kg. * Designed to be carried on the waist belt at all times whilst underground. * Respirator secured in position by mouthpiece and noseclip assembly, when in use. * For protection against carbon-monoxide gas only. * If worn correctly, will give protection against carbon-monoxide for 60 minutes. * Manufactured by the Mines Safety Appliance Company. _______________________________________________________________________________________ SELF-RESCUERS. Whenever an open fire occurred underground, men not required for fire fighting purposes, were always instructed to travel outbye to the pit bottom. Sometimes, those men have mistakenly or by force of circumstance chose to travel outbye via the return airway, which quickly became contaminated with smoke and fumes. Those fumes always contained the deadly poisonous, carbon-monoxide gas (CO). In many cases, during underground fire incidents, otherwise fit and healthy men have lost their lives from exposure to this gas when, had they have had protection, in the form of a respirator, a large proportion of them would have successfully made their escape into a fresh air zone. Although the need for protection against CO was widely recognised, there was little interest by all concerned, officials and workmen alike, for the underground workforce to carry some form of respirator. In 1950, an open fire occurred at Cresswell Colliery in Derbyshire where 80 men were forced to retreat via the contaminated return airway and all 80 men died from carbon-monoxide poisoning. It was seen later that a significant number were only a short distance from fresh air when they were overcome. After this incident, half-hearted attempts, in the form of voluntary carrying trials, were made in every NCB Area to introduce a self-rescue respirator. None of them were successful and the project was unofficial shelved. However, in September, 1959, an underground open fire occurred at Auchengeich Colliery in Scotland at a time when 48 men were travelling inbye on a man-rider, to their place of work at the start of the morning shift. The man-rider was situated in the return roadway (which was common practice) and the men were promptly exposed to the smoke and fumes. All 47 men died from CO poisoning. Following this there was a renewed campaign for self-rescuers, and after a slow start, underground carrying trials were successfully carried out and finally by the end of 1968, every NCB Colliery was equipped with self-rescuers. Instruction and training was given to every individual, underground workman and every other person such as Area Staff personnel etc. who had to go underground occasionally. The training was organised in small groups on the surface and dummy self-rescuers were worn. When all the training session had been completed, the self-rescuers, in their sealed canisters were installed in the colliery lamp room. After that time, it was compulsory for everyone to have a self-rescuer on their belt before being allowed to go underground. There was more than one type of self-rescuer used in the Country and the type selected for the Lancashire Coalfield and controlled from the Boothstown Station, was the MSA Type W230. This was replaced after about 3 years by the new and improved MSA Type W265 model. This weighed 1 kg, in total and was designed to be worn on the belt and would give a maximum of 60 minutes protection. The case was fitted with a quick release, stainless steel clamp. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------