Seven surface and six underground mine rescue teams across the province will be competing in different events Saturday in Williams Lake.
The Mine Rescue and First Aid Competition gets underway with the Provincials at the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds starting at 9 am and wrapping up at around 4 pm with an awards banquet later in the evening.
This follows Thursday’s 2019 Zone Competition.
“Williams Lake was so fantastic,” said Chief Inspector of Mines, Herman Henning.
“We got support from everybody around. The community was just amazing. Whenever we needed something, everybody jumped in and they just assisted us; they were incredibly supportive. So we are very excited to be here and thanks to everybody that helped us.”
Winners of the provincials will advance to the Western Region Mine Rescue Competition in Fernie this September.
“These people are the sole first responders to any mine incident or accident, and knowing that they are competent is very comforting for everybody to see,” Henning said.
“The other important reason for the competition is the interaction between the teams because these teams are quite often dependent on each other in the case of a bigger emergency where these teams have a mutual aid agreement they go to the other mines and assist each other. Also for the Ministry, it’s important in a sense that our inspectors this is part of a training exercise for us and it’s also very comforting for them to know that the teams that are on the mines are properly trained and they are competent.”
“It’s a great team building exercise,” Henning added.
“Everybody from all the regions around BC gets together and we don’t get much opportunity to be together in one single area, and now they’re all together.”