Local Mine Rescue Team place first at competition

The Hecla Lucky Friday Mine Rescue Team took first place in a Central Mine Rescue competition May 13-14 in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The team - consisting of team trainer Scott Hogamier, team captain Bob Burden, and team members Jeff Hunter, Ryan McCorkle, Nick Furlin, Darin Miller, Zac Thomas, and Chris Carlson - competed against many other mine rescue teams from Alaska, Idaho and Washington.

Lucky Friday's first aid group of Burden, Furlin and Miller took first in their portion of the event, while Hunter and McCorkle placed first in the Bench/Tech event.

The rescue team also took second in rope rescues and third place in the mine rescue problem portion of the contest.

This Central Mine Rescue competition is usually held in Kellogg or Osburn, but it was decided that this year's event would be in Fairbanks. The last time the competition was held in Alaska was 2011, when it took place in Juneau.

Dale Helbig, a fan of the Lucky Friday Mine Rescue Team, traveled up to the competition to support the team and said the group did great, especially against some of the bigger competition teams that may just do this in their spare time.

"All of the guys on the Lucky Friday team are working miners," said Helbig. "Some of the other teams are competition-only teams. They are part of a mine rescue team but aren't full-time miners."

He noted the team has already traveled to other competitions across the U.S. and it is expected that the team will travel to more of them over the summer.