Falco rescue team heads Down Under

The Falconbridge Craig-Lockerby team receives its Ontario mine rescue championship plaques. From left in front: James Lundrigan, Thomas Dwyer and Ronald Cormier. In back from left: Dan McIntosh, Brian Benoit, Peter Xavier, Parvis Farsangi (Falco general manager in Sudbury), David Lachance, Marc Girard and John Hagan (mine rescue officer with the Mines and Aggregates Safety and Health Association).The Falconbridge Craig-Lockerby team receives its Ontario mine rescue championship plaques. From left in front: James Lundrigan, Thomas Dwyer and Ronald Cormier. In back from left: Dan McIntosh, Brian Benoit, Peter Xavier, Parvis Farsangi (Falco general manager in Sudbury), David Lachance, Marc Girard and John Hagan (mine rescue officer with the Mines and Aggregates Safety and Health Association).

A mine rescue team representing Falconbridge’s Craig and Lockerby nickel-copper mines in Sudbury, Ont., recently won the Ontario mine rescue championships and will soon head to a colliery near Brisbane to compete against several Australian teams for the E.K. Healy Cup.

The occasion reportedly marks the first time a mine rescue team from Ontario will compete internationally.

The competition will consist of a written exam, first-aid, search and rescue, and a fire-fighting exercise in an open pit.

“We’re kind of worried about the fire exercise because we generally don’t practice putting out fires that large, but we’re quite excited to go,” says James Lundigran, a mine shift boss at Falconbridge.

Team Captain Thomas Dwyer has fought fires at the Craig mine and says he was gripped by the recent rescue of nine men trapped in coal mine near Pittsburgh, Pa.

“I really felt for those guys,” he says. “[Watching it on TV] you wanted to get in there with your fingers and start digging at the ground. The adrenaline when you get involved in a rescue like that bumps up to an all-time high.”

In addition to Lundrigan and Dwyer, the Falco team, aged 25-45, consists of Peter Xavier, Ronald Cormier, Brian Benoit, Marc Girard and Dan McIntosh. The team will leave Sudbury in early September.

Sponsors of the $50,000 trip include Falconbridge, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, the Redpath Group, Sandvik Tamrock and Atlas Copco.

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