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Indiana Department Faces Fine Over Confined Space Close-Call
Firefighter Nation
MUNCIE - Indiana's Star Press reports that two Liberty Township volunteer firefighters injured in a May confined space rescue attempt violated OSHA regulations.
On May 26, firefighters Rick Compton and Brian Buck arrived in their personal vehicles at the scene of plumber and his assistant overcome in the bottom of a 12-foot deep hole. Both Compton and Buck entered the hole without any personal protective equipment and were rendered unconscious due to fumes from a chemical being used to clear a drain.
When properly equipped firefighters from Liberty Township arrived, as well as confined-space trained firefighters from Muncie, all four victims were placed in harnesses and lifted out of the hole.
Both Compton and Buck survived, however the plumber, Eric Dalton and his assistant Justin Benson died.
State officials investigating the incident found the firefighters operated improperly by attempting a rescue that they were not trained for. The Liberty Township fire department faced a fine of $1,500 or take corrective action to prevent a similar tragedy from occuring in the future.
Liberty Township Fire Chief Brett Devine has stated that his department has begun making the necessary changes to prevent members from operating in ways that they have not been trained. Devine also reports that the department has stopped members from responding directly to the scene in their personally owned vehicles as well.
Read more of the Liberty Township well-rescue violations here.
Related
FireEMSBlogs Discussion
Are Today's Demands Too Much For Volunteers?
MUNCIE - Indiana's Star Press reports that two Liberty Township volunteer firefighters injured in a May confined space rescue attempt violated OSHA regulations.
On May 26, firefighters Rick Compton and Brian Buck arrived in their personal vehicles at the scene of plumber and his assistant overcome in the bottom of a 12-foot deep hole. Both Compton and Buck entered the hole without any personal protective equipment and were rendered unconscious due to fumes from a chemical being used to clear a drain.
When properly equipped firefighters from Liberty Township arrived, as well as confined-space trained firefighters from Muncie, all four victims were placed in harnesses and lifted out of the hole.
Both Compton and Buck survived, however the plumber, Eric Dalton and his assistant Justin Benson died.
State officials investigating the incident found the firefighters operated improperly by attempting a rescue that they were not trained for. The Liberty Township fire department faced a fine of $1,500 or take corrective action to prevent a similar tragedy from occuring in the future.
Liberty Township Fire Chief Brett Devine has stated that his department has begun making the necessary changes to prevent members from operating in ways that they have not been trained. Devine also reports that the department has stopped members from responding directly to the scene in their personally owned vehicles as well.
Read more of the Liberty Township well-rescue violations here.
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FireEMSBlogs Discussion
Are Today's Demands Too Much For Volunteers?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Dobson on
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Agree with the it's depts call.
Indiana will not recognize anything but the state's own program. They will furnish matierals for the class but we must furnish the instructor and procter. A 12 hour class on technical rescue would have did these guys alot of good. Sad thing is most dept's have no instructor so they are at the mercy of another dept to have the class.
There is little state resource for training and you can take what they give. But fire depts don't have a say in what the classes are givein. If the state is to fund a class there must be at least 4 depts at the class. So if your dept wants a ops level class and no one around has the equipment in that area of rescue. I doubt your going to find the training though the state.
The thing the state is doing right is setting up a number to call for technical rescue. They are evaluating the Depts who signed up for the call list. They will evaluate what we need and send the best and closest resources for the need. (A fire dept 911 number you may say.)
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Permalink Reply by Rob Young on
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As a volunteer department we stress that you are to respond to the station, and have all appropriate ppe on before responding to the call. This is common sense. What good, really, does it do a firefighter to respond to any call in their personal vehicle, unless they drive a fully equipped fire engine everywhere they go?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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There are other indirect costs, like the bad press and international embarassment. That's not exactly what makes City Hall big fans of the FD.
Most importantly, a fine sends the message that the responsible parties need to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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A 12 hour class on technical rescue would have did these guys alot of good.
I would say a 4 hour class on Awareness would have done them better, or even just some departmental training on awareness. There isn't a need for every dept out there to be certified in all aspects of rescue, technical included. Many times some awareness level and even some dept training is enough to cover the basics. In this situation it would be known that you have people down, establish command, you call for a tech rescue team (or private type of contractor as mentioned) monitor the air in the space, ventilate, etc, but one doesn't need to go in, especially if not certified.
When such details of the incident do get out and the public learns as the reason it took so long to get the people out, then one can make a campaign about the training, the hoops the state imposes, the cost of training, the reason the dept should have it and so forth. It is easier to do things right and make your statements later than to be facing fines because of untrained actions and the "we don't just stand around" type of attitude.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Just to give some comparison to fines, etc- there was a confined space related fatality here in Melbourne Victoria in 2007 (Not emergency services, but in industry). It was reported as:
17 August 2007
A 42 year old employee died while performing maintenance work inside a chemical road tanker in Altona North, Victoria. The man had been working alone when employees, alerted by the sound of operating equipment, found him unconscious on the floor of the tank. Workmates used retrieval equipment to remove the man from the tank but were unable to revive him.
Here's the outcome that was handed down in the courts earlier this year:
WorkSafe has warned companies and workers about the dangers of working in confined spaces after a tank cleaning company was convicted and fined $500,000 last week after a worker died.
The Director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture Program, Ross Pilkington, said whether tanks, silos drains or pits were involved; confined spaces were high-risk, high-consequence environments.
“With the addition of chemicals and gases into these places, those risks are magnified.”
“Safeguards include having, and using, systems of work which incorporate safe work procedures, appropriate atmospheric testing and personal protective equipment saves lives.
“Developing hazard identification and risk assessment systems to control access such as a ‘confined space entry permit’ is a common approach.”
Mr Pilkington said WorkSafe produced a range of materials aimed at people required to work in confined spaces and what can be done to protect them. They can be found online at www.worksafe.vic.gov.au or call 1800 136 089.
Altona North company Depot Vic Pty Limited (formerly known as Hyde Park Tank Depot Pty Ltd) was convicted and fined $500,000 on Wednesday after Geoffrey Johnson, 42, of Werribee was overcome by chemical fumes and died in a large empty tank.The company, which cleans and repairs storage tanks for the chemical industry, pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and another of failing to properly train and instruct its employees.County Court Judge Roy Punshon was told Mr Johnson was found dead inside the 25,000 litre tank nearly three metres high at the company’s premises on 16 August 2007.
WorkSafe’s investigation found he had used a chemical to remove latex from inside the tank but he could not be revived by workmates who found him.
WorkSafe’s investigation found the company’s training and application of appropriate safety standards were inadequate and that it failed to provide or maintain supervision of workers.
· WorkSafe estimated the concentration of the chemical in the tank would have been around 100,000 parts per million. It is considered to be “acutely lethal” at a concentration of 20,000 ppm. At 50,000 ppm as “immediately life threatening”.
· The company could not produce a Material Safety Data Sheet produced by the manufacturer of the chemical used on the day Mr Johnson died. It would have indicated that the product contained methylene chloride and the health hazards associated with it. These included dizziness, impaired co-ordination and headaches.
· Depot did not provide its employees with written safety procedures for the use of paint stripper which was also used to clean the insides of tanks;
· Confined space entry permits were not used;
· Inappropriate breathing equipment was used by workers inside tanks being cleaned;
· No rehearsal of emergency procedures had been conducted. A co-worker entered the tank to rescue Mr Johnson without personal protective equipment and had to get out after 15-30 seconds because of dizziness.
· Depot had a written procedure for confined space entry, had trained its employees in confined space entry (including annual refresher training) and had provided protective equipment, but they were not in Vietnamese which would have been appropriate to workers involved in the tank cleaning work;
The charges:
Failure by employer to provide a safe working environment - contrary to s.21(1) and (2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.
Failure by employer to provide a safe working environment - contrary to s.21(1) and (2)(e) of theOccupational Health and Safety Act 2004.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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This sort of stuff HAS to be taken seriously doesn't it Luke? As I've said, I'm not rescue trained in ANY form. We have only limited awareness training really for anything like confined space. What we are trained about though is that we don't have the training we don't do it!.
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The awareness training you guys have is enough to at least hopefully prevent a repaeat of any of these incidents.
Having said that, the $500,000 fine mentioned above will go further in preventing another incident as opposed to the pittance $1500 that OSHA handed the FD....
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I would say a 4 hour class on Awareness would have done them better, or even just some departmental training on awareness. There isn't a need for every dept out there to be certified in all aspects of rescue, technical included.
Indiana does not have a 4 hour Awareness class it's 12 hours and yes there is a need for all depts to have it.
It covers Confined Space, Vehicle / Machinery, Trench, Wilderness, Swift Water, Structural Collapse, Rope rescue Awareness all in one shot. If they were not trained for confined space there are not trained in the others. Here in Indiana you can not pick just one rescue awareness class to be certified in, they are all grouped together. They all teach you what a responder can and can't do in a rescue. You must have a cert in Haz-Mat awareness as a Prerequisite for Tech Rescue awareness also.
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Here is how we find up coming training in Indiana. http://www.indianafiretraining.net/District10/ This the website to my district and what is being offered.
Some of the classes may be 75 miles away and a few days a week. So how may volunteer firefighters are going to drive that far for 3 or 4 hours of class twice a week for two to three weeks? Not many, t's hard enough to get them to show for inhouse training. I have firefighters begging for Haz-Mat awareness training, there hasn't been one close for three years. In my opinon if you don't have a Haz-Mat awareness cert you should not be doing runs or your asking for trouble.
Wildland fires we do them about everyday thats are most frequent fire call. Never had any official training and none has ever been offered, other than the very little in FFI/FFII class. So when someone gets hurt who is going to get hung? We train on wildland fires inhouse but how far will that carry if someone gets hurt?
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The awareness training you guys have is enough to at least hopefully prevent a repaeat of any of these incidents.
Kind of what I was trying to say.
Here in Indiana you can not pick just one rescue awareness class to be certified in, they are all grouped together. They all teach you what a responder can and can't do in a rescue. You must have a cert in Haz-Mat awareness as a Prerequisite for Tech Rescue awareness also.
John, the point here is simple. Had the rescuers had not just gone in and command was established, a call made for a confined space rescue, moitor the space and ventilate, then there would be no reason for this fine, this article, this incident hurting responders (physically and financially).
It is clear that there are always hoops to jump through and challenges to be met. However, a dept can not plan on, nor train on, let alone certify in every type of incident they may get called to. The reason for the fines is because a rescue was initiated by uncertified people, vs uncertified people getting called to the scene. A dept does not need to have a state certification class to do the right things, this is why I mentioned that dept training should be enough to prevent would be rescuers to step back and size up appropriately.
Basically, view this incident like a HAZMAT call. Not every dept does HAZMAT, not everyone is certified in HAZAMT, but a HAZMAT call could occur in any district. What kind of training should all FF's have in HAZMAT? Know how to use the ERG (orange book). Using that a dept can relay information and also know what to do, in most cases that is staging, establishing command, establishing a perimeter, and calling for those who are certified. This takes no special training, no state certified classes to do and so forth, this is in house training any and every dept should do on their own. If a dept, uncertified HAZMAT, arrives on scene and does as mentioned, they are not going to get fined because they don't have certs, the incident is beyond their scope of training, so they call for help. It is when the dept tries to do something they are not trained to do when problems and issues occur.
Sometimes the hardest part about the job is to stand by and wait, but sometimes that is the only move to make.
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I just set through a ems inservice that was given by IDHS. They are mad because first responders in Fire, EMS, Police are walking into Haz-Mat incidents unaware of what to look for. Whether your dept does Haz-Mat or not ( We have no Haz-Mat equip.) you should be trained for it to at least the awarness level. Same as what tech rescue awarness. Yes you can teach it in house but it will still comes back on the dept when something goes wrong. If you are certified than it is your fault if you mess up.
As I said we carry no Haz-Mat equipment but we are trained to the ops level, to call for an evacuation if need be until techs arrive.
EMS has Haz-Mat questions on the test but its not enough to stop them from getting in trouble.
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Permalink Reply by Brad MacMillan on
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I don't know '55', we should still fault them for that. We don't have ANY confined space training in our department besides the few of us that have taken awareness courses. But we all know that if a situation is hazardous, wait for the appropriate gear. For H2S at 100ppm you're done. That's all it takes, and it doesn't take much to get that high. It doesn't take a genius to weigh the risk/benefit factor here. Two men have been rendered unconscious in a 12-foot deep hole for an unknown amount of time. Who's to say this isn't a recovery to start with? If at the very least, they wanted to help, wait until you have SCBA, PPE, and someone up top to notice if you go down. But that's not even how the confined space rescue works. I'm sure they have proper gas testers, I know we do just in case we have to enter a confined space (with someone qualified).
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