LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Deaths in the mining industry last year neared their highest number in a decade. Most occurred in surface mines, like strip or open-pit mines, which vastly outnumber underground mining operations in the U.S. But Kentucky Public Radio's Justin Hicks learned there are fewer opportunities to train above-ground miners to rescue their co-workers.
JUSTIN HICKS, BYLINE: On a Wednesday morning, before the sun crested the horizon, dozens of miners were already hard at work, searching for survivors in a mine accident. They quickly put on specialized oxygen masks that screech when they turn on.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Face piece. Hoses. Back plate. Gauge how you feel.
HICKS: This is the National Mine Rescue Contest, held every two years. But these miners aren't underground - they're in a downtown convention center in Lexington, Ky. Brian Goepfert, with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, watches off to the side. He says they'll throw all sorts of scenarios at these miners to prepare them for, God forbid, the real deal.
BRIAN GOEPFERT: There's usually unaccounted people, fires, unstable ground, water. It's a combination of those different things, and kind of almost like a geometry problem. You're looking at how you solve this.
HICKS: Now, it requires a bit of imagination to see those hazards - curtains and poles to symbolize rock walls and paper signs warn of toxic gas. Missouri miner Steve Stezer knows it's a far cry from a real mine, but he believes it's still helpful to young miners.
STEVE STEZER: The main thing we'd like to do is get teams under duress - get them tired, get them stressed - because that's when they got to make tough decisions. And tough decisions is a big deal of it.
HICKS: And there have been a lot of those tough decisions lately. Last year, 40 miners died at work.
CHRIS WILLIAMSON: Last year was not the best year for all the mining community.
HICKS: That's Chris Williamson, head of the federal Mine Safety Agency. He says he had lots of meetings with mines and inspectors to stress safety. So far this year, 16 miners have died on the job.
WILLIAMSON: We're over halfway into the year. The number of fatalities have dropped dramatically.
HICKS: There's still one big problem. The vast majority of deaths this year and last have happened at surface mines, not underground mines. And most competitions and trainings are designed for underground rescues, even though 95% of the nation's mines are above ground. Williamson says historically, there's not been as much energy around surface rescue competitions and training, but that's changing.
WILLIAMSON: On the surface side, you know, more and more people are seeing the value of mine rescue and how important it is to have really good teams.
HICKS: Right now, the best place for surface mine safety, training and competition happens in a place without a single mountain - Florida. Karen Miller manages mine safety there.
KAREN MILLER: We have no underground mines in the state of Florida. Everything is surface mining.
HICKS: Miller organizes the largest surface mine competition in the country, which is still a fraction of the size of underground mine competitions. She says it started because their regional mine safety director asked them to lead the way about five years ago.
MILLER: They were like, we've got to do something for surface. They asked us, would you be interested in putting together a mine rescue surface competition?
HICKS: Instead of focusing on underground worries like toxic gas, they focus on things like firefighting, first aid and rescuing people from vehicles. Miller says she's hoping to start the first ever national surface mine competition next year.
MILLER: Because that's the only way they're going to learn, because really, the first line of defense is the miners. They need to be.
HICKS: Miller's surface competition has grown to about 20 rescue teams at her biggest competition - still nowhere close to the more than 70 rescue teams at the underground national competition, but it's a start.
For NPR News, I'm Justin Hicks in Lexington, Ky.
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