Kim, thank you for your question about the CAFSCO mine fire fighting foam. It has been developed over a period of about twenty years in the USA. We have extinguished 8 mine fires. It has a complete government report published about our successful fire extinguishment of the Pinnacle mine fire, where we were called after an attempt to use the GAG had failed to inert the mine (same as Pike River mine). http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/pubs/pdfs/tuone.pdfAfter the water based foam has extinguished the fire, it simply soaks into the coal seam and evaporates away with no damage or even residue to clean up. In fact we can add bio-remediation microbes that are designed for emergency response organizations to use to clean up toxic by-products of coal combustion. The US Navy uses our foam to apply the latest warfare decon agents, the Michigan Agriculture Division has purchased our foam generators to control the H5N1 Avian Virus. This foam has been proven for many years for many special applications. It should have been used on this fire. I hope this is useful information and answers your question. Thanks again, Mark Cummins
@Mark I have had a look at the CAFSCO website and find it hard to believe you had no response to an offer of help. I'm just curious though, How is the foam removed after the fire is out? And will this destroy any evidence that might be in the mine?
This fire was especially depressing for us at CAFSCO Fire Control, USA. We felt a duty to help with such a tragic event, we offered free of charge to help them with a foam injection project but we could not get any response from the management. We have been involved with two previous coal mine fires where they chose to use the GAG jet engine to try to dilute the gases, to extinguish fires that had proceeded into the coal seams where the gas can't reach coal that is burning under a collapsed roof, and with ashes and subsidence conditions covering the burning coal. We were hoping they would accept our offer of showing them how to use their own manpower and equipment to create compressed fire fighting foam and how to use high pressure injection through the bore holes to fill the voids with wet soaking foam. The dense water based foam can seal the combustion area with a fire proof smothering foam mass. And at least cover the fallen miners bodies with the thermal protective blanket of foam to prolong the recovery time. They will now have serious environmental problems for many years. Sealing the mine is a bad choice. Now that it is no longer a recovery operation, We can offer to extinguish the fire with our own crews and equipment, but it will cost dearly after sealing it and it becomes a deep seated seam fire.
Mmm something is not right here Mr Kokshoorn was SO determined to get the bodies out - sooo determined to get answers, it seems to be that he just "rolled over" ... more to this story one feels...
I wonder when Tony Kokshoorn will get the callup for Nationals back benches.
