When something goes wrong at a mine — a fire, a collapse, a crushed operator, bad air — the first people to respond are almost always other miners. At an underground mine, or a surface mine hours from town, they may be the only people who CAN respond in time. They go in while everyone else is coming out. 

Here is what most people don't know: outside of underground mine rescue teams, there is no federal standard for how those responders are trained, equipped, medically cleared, staffed, or led.

None for surface mine emergency response teams. None for mine fire brigades. None for cutting a miner out of a machine, rigging a rope rescue off a highwall, entering a confined space, or making a water rescue. No required incident command. No requirement that the ambulance the mine's plan depends on can actually get there. A worker doing these same jobs at a factory is protected by OSHA fire brigade, respirator, rescue, and hazmat standards. Those standards do not apply at mines. Some mining companies do it right anyway — really right. Others have a team that exists on paper. Both are legal.

The cost of that gap is written in this industry's history. In 2001 at Brookwood, Alabama, twelve of the thirteen miners killed had gone back in to rescue an injured coworker when a second explosion hit. In 2007 at Crandall Canyon, Utah, three rescue workers were killed during the rescue itself. In 2024 at a California quarry, a career Los Angeles County firefighter was killed when a burning loader tire exploded — a mining hazard most fire departments have never trained on. From 2021 through 2025, 167 miners died in accidents at U.S. mines. Every one of those emergencies demanded a response. Miners will always go. The law should make sure they go prepared.

We are asking the Mine Safety and Health Administration to begin rulemaking that sets minimum federal standards for mine emergency response — surface and underground:

• Real training and hands-on skill verification, matched to the duties responders are actually assigned
• Medical readiness, respiratory protection, and PPE that fits and works for anyone sent into danger
• Response equipment matched to the mission — fire apparatus, extrication tools, rope and confined space gear, a rescue boat where water is the hazard, patient transport
• If the local ambulance can't reliably get there in time, the mine provides transport that meets state EMS standards — no injured miner waiting at the gate
• Incident command, realistic drills, and verified mutual aid — no more paper teams
• The protected right of any responder to refuse an entry beyond their training or equipment
• Keep and strengthen every existing mine rescue rule. Weaken nothing. Scale it fairly for small mines.

This is not an anti-company petition. Many operators already run excellent programs — and they carry that cost while competitors lawfully spend nothing. A national minimum protects their people and levels their field. The standard should be based on the hazards responders face, not the minimum any one company chooses to provide.

You do not have to name your employer or your mine to sign, and you can sign without displaying your name publicly. But if you choose to, tell us in the comments what this is to you — current miner, former miner, mine rescue, fire, EMS, or the family of someone underground. Those comments will go to MSHA with the formal petition.

No miner should have to wonder whether help is coming. No responder should be asked to risk their life without the training, equipment, staffing, and standards needed to do the job safely.

Sign. Share. Send it to another miner.