A blog reader, who is a member of a municipal rescue team assigned to an airport, expressed concern about fulfilling “timely response” obligations for permit-required confined space entries within his district. Here are some suggestions from our Tech Panel… First of all, the departments and agencies involved must carefully consider the obligations in providing rescue...
We had this question from a reader and wanted to post for all to read. Would a proper tailboard briefing conducted before a confined space entry be sufficient for identifying hazards that may be encountered by the entrants or the rescue team? It’s true that a tailboard briefing should be an integral part of the...
There’s no doubt about it, confined space entry is risky business. A first consideration should always be to try and eliminate the known and potential hazards – or, even better, “engineer out” the need for entry when possible. If it’s not possible (or feasible), and entry must be made, then as part of OSHA’s Permit-Required...
We received this great email and photo from Jan M. Snyder, Battalion Chief for the City of Santa Fe Fire Department. Thanks for the feedback, Chief! “I want to thank you for all your help and coordination this year with all the City of Santa Fe Fire Department has done with ROCO. Last week’s Technical...
Pictured is our Rescue I-Plus class, September 20-24, 2010 in North Vancouver, BC. Another great group of students from Canada, Alaska and New York! Roco Chief Instructor Tom Morgan and Instructor Randy Engemoen enjoyed getting to know the group, and as you can see the weather cooperated nicely on picture day.
By Greg Botelho, CNN – October 13, 2010 3:40 p.m. EDT Copiapo, which could have been the site of mass mourning had the miners’ rescue effort gone awry, instead became home to a patriotic festival. The strong national pride was omnipresent: from the red, white and blue Chilean flags that permeated the rescue site to the...
Students from “around the globe” attended the recent Confined Space Tech II class in Baton Rouge. Yet another large group with 5 of them coming all the way from Qatar. Thanks guys for another awesome class!
As part of our mission to develop a rescue community, we are asking teams to share their rescue experiences with the blog group. This month, Motiva in Convent, LA relates an interesting real-rescue their team faced. This Motiva team has been working together for 20 years! They practice quarterly to keep their skills sharp, and...
We received an interesting question about pre-rigged systems from one of our subscribers. The TechPanel had some helpful comments to share, so we have re-posted the info here. It’s a great topic. Things to consider about leaving systems pre-rigged First of all, whether to pre-rig systems or not depends a lot on the types of...
SANTIAGO, CHILE – After nearly two months trapped in a collapsed copper mine, 33 miners begin training Monday for the final chapter of their underground odyssey: escape. As three simultaneous rescue operations slowly drill through 2,250 feet of solid rock, the men are receiving detailed instructions on the latest plans to haul them out one...
