
(Picture Courtesy of Michael Miskiewicz) (Maliah Miskiewicz)
When the average person hears that you work in a coal mine, your first thought of what that job entails, most likely wouldn’t be dangerously and heroically sacrificing your life while fighting underground fires, but for Michael Miskiewicz, that was how he’d describe his profession for seven years of his life.
After transferring from West Virginia, to Pennsylvania, all while receiving the passing certifications necessary to work as a foreman within the coal mine, Mine 84, Miskiewicz would soon be offered an opportunity of a lifetime.
“Mine Rescue was a great sense of camaraderie. You never wanted to get that call but you also never hesitated to help, to save people’s lives,” said Miskiewicz.
Mine rescue, or as the common public would call it, underground firefighting, is a part time job that most would consider to be a nightmare, but for ten brave men, one including Miskiewicz, this was a job that would create memories that lasted a lifetime.
“It was like being on a team, just like going to school and playing football, except I would go to the mine to work, and at any time–any time there was a fire or explosion– I could be called and I’d have to go immediately.”
While Miskiewicz relates his time as working as a mine rescuer in relation to simply being apart of an after school team, in reality, these men were hand selected for their skills and abilities.
“Mine rescue is basically just a group of guys that are going into a mine, when people are leaving the mine, you know trying to leave,” said Miskiewicz, “…there’s a fire or explosion underground in a coal mine and we are that selected few that goes into the mine to help in any ways we can.”
By saying that the people are trying to leave the mine, those involved are more or less escaping, in order to even have a chance at survival.
Acting as firefighters, paramedics, and skilled coal miners, Miskiewicz and his team would enter into extremely dangerous environments almost blindly, not sure to what situation they were about to walk into.
“Not only did we fight fires, but a lot of times, people are trapped underground,” said Miskiewicz, “We train to find people, to find where the miners could be barricaded, located, or stranded.”
The protocol for any coal miner in the state of an emergency who is unable to escape to the surface, is to barricade themselves in any way possible. This creates not only a struggle and danger for the miners who are victimized by the fire, but also the rescue team who are thoroughly and vigorously searching to save them from suffocation.
Being a part of mine rescue required team members to not only be in good physical shape but mental as well. A high level of dedication and the ability to work in extremely dangerous and high stress conditions.
“We’re trained to carry a stretcher with us. And then obviously when you do find people that were barricaded, enclosed in an area… when we did find the people, sometimes they didn’t make it.”
One day in particular, a day that Miskiewicz and many others will never forget, became the day where a mine explosion left West Virginia with the most underground fatalities they’d ever seen.
“The Sago Mine Disaster happened on January 2 of 2006, and when I got the call, I just had to drop everything,” said Miskiewicz, “…I’ve been called to many mine fires. There’s a fire underground, but everybody’s safe and everybody got out, but with Sago, only one made it out and the rest were found deceased.”
The memory of the Sago Mine Disaster remains a somber reminder of the risks coal miners and rescue teams face within their day to day job. Despite the loss, Miskiewicz and his team’s commitment to their mission reflects their dedication to protecting others, even at great personal risk.
While Miskiewicz and his mine rescue team might not be entirely comparable to a high school sports team, just like any team would, they’d partake in competition revolving around their underground skills. These competitions were held within Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, where the participants would partake in events that they would encounter in a real life situation.
“We’d have to unroll a hose and connect it and get the water established. There’s another competition for searching for people who are trapped in the mine,” said Miskiewicz, “So you have, like a maze, and you have to navigate, you know, and do things certain ways in order to get to the people who are trapped,” said Miskiewicz.
Even though these tasks may seem as taxing and labrous as doing it within a real scenario, it was actually an event that Miskiewicz, as well as the rest of the men within this association, would look forward to.
“The competitions were a good time, and we took home a few trophies too,” said Miskiewicz.
Miskiewicz and his team not only took home first place trophies within their local division, but made it to the national tournament as well, coming home with memories and friends that truly have lasted a lifetime.
While Miskiewicz is no longer risking his life for others by fighting fire, he still is constantly in a dangerous environment simply by working his day to day job as a Coal Mining Foreman, where he supervises mining operations with his team of coal miners and operates hazardous with the knowledge of truly how life threatening the conditions of working within the coal mines truly are.
“Now I’m just an old coal miner. I just look at the younger guys and tell them how important it is to be safe because I’ll be the first to say how dangerous it can be.”