Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, is undergoing a facelift. Revitalization of older buildings is seen everywhere. In late 2024, First Responders waded into the middle of this revitalization to intervene in the emotional breakdown of a man. While that itself is not uncommon in Albuquerque or any other large city, the fact that it was 100...
Medical calls make up the majority of contacts with the public for emergency responders. Technical rescue calls make up a much smaller segment of emergency response. While the response numbers are at opposite ends of the response spectrum, they are invariably tied together.
The following fatality reports were summarized from recent OSHA News Releases (osha.gov).
NEW YORK – Two employees of a Bronx water and sewer line construction contractor were fatally injured in a trench at a construction site at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens on April 3, 2023. These fatalities could have been prevented if their employer had ensured proper safeguards, a federal investigation found.
Firefighters perform rescues every day in many different situations. This incident shows while rescues like this may not happen every day, when they do, rope rescue skills are invaluable.
Firefighters perform rescues every day in many different situations. These two incidents this month show how regular training sessions ensure the success of dangerous rescues.
During a recent snowstorm, the Woodbury Fire Department responded to an initial call of a car down an embankment. However, upon arrival, things became quite a bit more complicated. Department personnel were faced with a situation that pushed their training limits, and also created some valuable lessons learned.
During a recent snow storm in Highland Mills, New York, the Woodbury Fire Department performed a rope rescue for a driver whose car flipped over the guardrail. The wreck occurred on Route 293, with the car tumbling down a 50 to 60 foot embankment and landing upside down in a stream.
In a grim reminder about the dangers of trench and excavation work, this article from Safety+Health Magazine also serves as a warning to employers. “The court’s decision sends a message to business owners that they can be held criminally accountable and face felony charges if they knowingly fail to protect their workers.”
“We were at a standstill, and if we couldn’t come up with a solution to shore up that part of the structure,” Tim Robson recalls, “we‘d be sending our people into a much riskier situation. In fact, some areas were so dangerous, we had to start thinking about things like, “Who’s not married?” and “Who doesn’t have kids?” It was awful, but it was...
