This report summarized the United States Bureau of Mines research in developing inflatable devices for isolating and combating underground mine fires. The development and capabilities of the remotely installed inflatable device were described. Also discussed were in mine inflatable devices for use in isolating mine entries for controlling ventilation airflows, injecting suppressant foam to the fire zone, and aiding personnel to evacuate the mine. The portable in mine inflatable flow restrictor (IFR) was shown to effectively stop airflows in a wide entry of up to 1,130 cubic meters/minute in less than 3 minutes. Successful blockage was obtained in less than 30 minutes of a 1.8 meter high by 7 meter wide entry with an IFR that was remotely deployed through boreholes up to 60 meters deep. The inflatable feed tube seal (IFTS) was developed for use during an underground mine fire to rapidly isolate the fire while simultaneously providing a feed tube to allow passage of suppressant foam from a high expansion foam (HEF) generator. The IFTS offered a potential tool for fire fighters to rapidly fight fires in passageways with high expansion foam (HEF). Preliminary testing of a positive pressure, inflatable escape device indicated that the device had merit and additional in mine testing may show that it could be used in underground mines to isolate smoke filled entries from fresh air, thus allowing extra escape time.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.