Tuesday, November 09, 2010

 

Videographers Get Miner Certification


WEST VIRGINIA...

Ten videographers with Spike TV have been certified as apprentice coal miners, ready to head underground and start filming a southern West Virginia reality show with the blessing of state officials who initially worried about their safety.
Nine men and one woman completed the same 80-hour training course required of all new miners in West Virginia, and all passed their certification tests Monday afternoon in Welch, said Bill Tucker, inspector-at-large for the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training.
"They're not going to be doing any work,'' Tucker said, "but by state law, they actually could work.''

Spike will be shooting "Coal'' at Cobalt Coal's Westchester mine in McDowell County, deep in the southern coalfields. Ten one-hour episodes are expected to air next spring.
Only two crew members will be underground at any one time, and, by law, they will always be in the company of experienced miners. The two-person limit is partly for safety and to limit exhaustion from crawling around in cramped confines with heavy equipment, said Debra Fazio, spokeswoman for Spike TV.
Canadian-owned Cobalt is mining a highly valuable coal used in steelmaking, but the Sewell seam is notoriously thin, forcing miners to work in a space just 42 inches high some 600 feet underground.
Fazio said there won't be time for reshoots, and the camera crew doesn't want to get in the way.
"We're not there to disrupt what these guys are doing. Their job is to get this coal out every day. Their business is still going on,'' she said. "We're there to observe what's going on.''
When the show was announced in October, state and federal mine safety officials expressed concerns that filming underground could lead to an accident in a state that has had too many. The last disaster, an April explosion that killed 29 men at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, is still under investigation.
But Tucker said he and assistant inspector-at-large Greg Norman were relieved that the Westchester mine does not vent highly explosive methane gas, one of the suspected causes of the April blast.
"If it was a gassy mine,'' Tucker said, "you'd take a harder look at this.''





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