Across the nation, professional mine rescue teams train to respond to real underground mining emergencies, including roof falls, explosions, floods, and other situations. These teams are comprised of professional miners who take time away from work to practice with the team. Underground mines are legally obligated to have a team, or to contribute people to a regional team.

These teams also compete in mine rescue contests where the goal is to work their way through the disaster scenario and save the victims. These scenarios are all simulated and everyone is always in a safe environment. Teams will walk the field, which may or may not be in a mine, find clues and markers indicating simulated conditions, and then try to determine the best way to rescue the miners.

While collegiate level mine rescue teams cannot be called to real emergencies, they can and do compete against professional teams in the same contests using the same rules. In these contests, the scenarios are written to make the team think and use the rules to figure out how to rescue survivors without endangering the team or damaging the mine. These problems are designed to test the teams; rescuing miners is not supposed to be easy.