The competition heated up at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon on Saturday as 18 teams from mines across Saskatchewan gathered to participate in the 48th annual Emergency Response Mine Rescue Skills Competition.
Each team was isolated throughout the competition and rotated through a series of underground or surface tests including fire, first aid, practical skills and mock mines.
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While the competition has an element of fun to it, the simulated scenarios are intended to help prepare miners for possible emergencies.
“Just learn to be better, just keep learning. It’s an experience for our competitors to get better and be ready in case something was to happen,” said Guy Hiltz, the competition’s chair and coordinator.
“The way that they handle themselves in the situations they’re put up against is pretty impressive.”
Terry Zerbin has been competing for the past 15 years, but this year helped build the challenges.
“As a new competitor when I was younger, the adrenaline goes up, the anxiety, the nervousness and everything else. Whereas when you become the old dog you start to calm down and you just do. You just react to the situation, you don’t have to think it through as much,” Zerbin explained.
He has competed on a national level and says the Saskatoon skills competition ranks at the top.
“The quality and professionalism compared to some of the other competitions I’ve been to, the effort to make it as real as possible, it excels,” Zerbin said.
The competition can get heated and not all competitors are successful, but if an error is made this is the place to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
“Every miner in the province relies on these guys to get home safely. If something were to happen at the mine, these are the guys that are coming,” said Sean Linton, the fire event coordinator.