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Industrial Sites- Lack of Understanding Creates Issues for Rescuers
As most of you are aware, I run an emergency management training and consulting company.
One of the services we provide clients is the provision of Safety Officers, Fire Officers, Rescue Coordinators and Confined Space Safety Officers.
This week we have a large job commencing for a client where we're providing 7 Confined Space Safety Officers for a maintenance shutdown.
In the lead up to this work, I did a walkthrough of each entry (about 9 in total, being done over 9 days) so as I had a better idea of the work being done.
I then asked the client for a copy of any pre-prepared JSA's and assessments so as I could cast my eyes over them and check for any other associated hazards that may have been missed. This is vital as our operators will be signing onto the work permit and confined space permits along with managing the entries and any subsequent rescue should they arise.
The company has contractors going into these pits to clean out sludge, scale and other stuff- it's an annual job.
A couple of days later I get a call from the manager looking after this project- the contractor that will b entering our pits (they're about 9 metres deep, and measure across 10m x 10m across) wants to put a bobcat (see picture below) into the pits to make it easier to clean.
The client wanted to know if this would create any issues for us.
Issues? Let me think about that for 2 seconds:
* Ventilation
* Atmospheric monitoring
* Rescue
The biggest issue without a doubt is carbon monoxide levels rising to dangerous levels.
My point with this long winded post is that if we didn't know the dangers with this, or had no heads up, this had the potential to turn nasty very quickly.
The flow on for emergency services is the unknown issues that are going on around them, sometimes on a daily basis in their own response area.
This particular company even has an on-site emergency response team and they had no clue this work was being performed until I spoke to them about this job!
If you have manufacturing plants and other industry, get to know the key people.
I've been a big advocate for sometime in these forums about doing walkthroughs, meet and greets, pre-planning and so on for industry.
You need to get on the right side of industry sectors, to the point where you know or are kept informed as to when maintenance work is being performed, what sort of work is being performed and even consulted on a regular basis about safety issues likely to arise.
Pre-planning is so important as industrial work is very dynamic. This particular shutdown will have over 300 contractors doing a huge array of different tasks.
Get in there and preach the importance of PREVENTION as opposed to response.
Train on these sites. If they have on site ERT's, train with them.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather know up front what the issues are well beforehand as opposed to when I arrive for a call out....
One of the services we provide clients is the provision of Safety Officers, Fire Officers, Rescue Coordinators and Confined Space Safety Officers.
This week we have a large job commencing for a client where we're providing 7 Confined Space Safety Officers for a maintenance shutdown.
In the lead up to this work, I did a walkthrough of each entry (about 9 in total, being done over 9 days) so as I had a better idea of the work being done.
I then asked the client for a copy of any pre-prepared JSA's and assessments so as I could cast my eyes over them and check for any other associated hazards that may have been missed. This is vital as our operators will be signing onto the work permit and confined space permits along with managing the entries and any subsequent rescue should they arise.
The company has contractors going into these pits to clean out sludge, scale and other stuff- it's an annual job.
A couple of days later I get a call from the manager looking after this project- the contractor that will b entering our pits (they're about 9 metres deep, and measure across 10m x 10m across) wants to put a bobcat (see picture below) into the pits to make it easier to clean.
The client wanted to know if this would create any issues for us.
Issues? Let me think about that for 2 seconds:
* Ventilation
* Atmospheric monitoring
* Rescue
The biggest issue without a doubt is carbon monoxide levels rising to dangerous levels.
My point with this long winded post is that if we didn't know the dangers with this, or had no heads up, this had the potential to turn nasty very quickly.
The flow on for emergency services is the unknown issues that are going on around them, sometimes on a daily basis in their own response area.
This particular company even has an on-site emergency response team and they had no clue this work was being performed until I spoke to them about this job!
If you have manufacturing plants and other industry, get to know the key people.
I've been a big advocate for sometime in these forums about doing walkthroughs, meet and greets, pre-planning and so on for industry.
You need to get on the right side of industry sectors, to the point where you know or are kept informed as to when maintenance work is being performed, what sort of work is being performed and even consulted on a regular basis about safety issues likely to arise.
Pre-planning is so important as industrial work is very dynamic. This particular shutdown will have over 300 contractors doing a huge array of different tasks.
Get in there and preach the importance of PREVENTION as opposed to response.
Train on these sites. If they have on site ERT's, train with them.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather know up front what the issues are well beforehand as opposed to when I arrive for a call out....
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Luke,
Are they going to have to dig out the sludge manually since the front-end loader is such an obvious bad idea?
I'd also add that putting a big machine into a confined space (or other below-grade space) creates additional hazards - entrapment by the machinery/heavy object and added heat stress, for starters.
Good luck with the job.
Ben
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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They pump it out first, then use the bobcat to move around and scoop up the remainder so as the pump can continue pumping. This particular job also entails some demolition work once the pit is pumped and cleaned out, so the bobcat will be sued for that as well.
The entrapment issue has been looked at, as has the heat stress- we're there to monitor heat stress as well as the space conditions, etc.
AS I said in the original post, this stuff fascinates me from the perspective that there's an incredible lack of understanding on the sites part about likely hazards and that if anything was to go wrong, the ERT and Fire Department would be coming in totally blind to the situation....
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Do the bobcat operators wear SCBA, and how do they provide enough oxygen to the bobcat to keep it running for an extended period? Does the plant use high-volume ventilation fans or something similar?
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Ask me again tomorrow once I do a compelte walkthrough of the job with the contractors....
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Well the project went off, though I wouldn't say without a hitch!
On day 1 we arrived and the site had organised all equipment- mistake #1. We wanted to supply all equipment, but for some reason they were more comfortable using equipment XX's on their site.
We promptly condemned 2x 4:1 recovery systems when we opened the storage boxes to find the systems fully submerged in water,, ropes damaged and pulley blocks engraved with company details!
We supplied 2x 4:1 recovery systems after that....
In total, there was about 9 holes to be pumped out, along with the demolition works mentioned in the original post.
The use of the bobcat was a dead issue- the contractor couldn't seem to get their head around what the issues were (which amazed me!), but in the end was not needed. The debris was removed by hand.
The entries required us to set up the tripods. recovery systems, secure the tripods, establish safety lines for the entrants and the standby operators, monitor the atmospheres while being pumped, iniate any emergency procedures as issues arise, etc.
All went off without a hitch except for 1 hole in which part way through the pump out, the monitor went into alarm with high LEL readings. Our standby crew for this hole (we had between 4 and 6 operators each day looking after holes) promptly killed (mind the pun!) the power to the lights, evacuated the entrants and raised the alarm with the relevant people. Great job on their part... ;-)
I still can't stress the importance of liaising with your local industry- some of these holes required some pretty out-of-the-box set ups to establish safe systems for entry and rescue. If an emergency required external assistance from the FD, there would not have been the time to step through the set ups, set them up and peroform an effective rescue...
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Permalink Reply by TrainingTECH1 on
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You sure it wasn't one of those new underwater recovery systems? You have to soak them in water before deploying them.
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It was wet enough and cold enough!
BTW Jeff, check out the discussions in the Confined Space group- there's a couple there about anchors and redirectionals that may be of interest...
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Permalink Reply by David Clark on
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Hey I know this is an old post and I wish I had seen it earlier because I have seen a contractor run a mini excavator in a cofferdam that was about that same size ±. There was enough ventilation to keep the atmosphere breathable so there weren't any problems that way. There was a problem however because the cofferdam was in a flowing river which required pumps running constantly to keep the water out. They would usually lift the excavator out of the cofferdam at night to keep it dry. One night they left the excavator in the cofferdam but didn't make sure there was enough fuel in the generators to run the pumps all night. The pumps shut down, the water came up, and the excavator was completely drowned. I think the repair bill was on the order of $10,000 ±. What a hoot! I didn't make this up.
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