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 Few
things are worse than watching employees or co-workers stranded
in places so high up that they can’t be helped within
a few seconds. What’s the best way to be ready? By learning
what to do before it happens and then acting quickly and calmly.
Few people know how to get ready
for rescues at high elevations better than Winton Wilcox,
president of ComTrain, LLC, a Monroe, Wis.-based company that
specializes in training for "high-angle" rescues,
especially in communications towers that are as high as 2,000
ft. Many of the safety principles are the same no matter what
the height.
Be aware that brain damage can occur after only three
or four minutes once a victim has lost consciousness and
stopped breathing. |
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Check safety-related equipment daily. |
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Be aware of harness-induced injuries. |
A crew needs a good job plan, says
Wilcox. Briefings before every shift should cover hazards
and proper use of safety equipment, which should be checked
daily.
Keeping your head is the first
principle in a high-angle rescue. Hurt workers are probably
already panicked. So even when someone is dangling 100 ft
in the air, or has sustained a severe electrical shock, don’t
lose your cool because even more things can go wrong, says
Wilcox.
Still, every second counts. Once
someone loses consciousness or goes into respiratory arrest
following an electrical shock, there are only three or four
minutes in which to bring the victim to the ground to perform
cardio-pulmonary resuscitation before permanent brain damage
occurs. And workers dangling in harnesses are subject to injuries
caused by restricted blood flow. Have medical personnel ready
on the ground to begin treatment, says Reed Thorne, vice president
of Ropes that Rescue, a training firm in Sedona, Ariz.
Rusty White, a Fort Worth, Texas-based
former lineman, prefers Labor Dept.-approved safety instruction,
but it isn’t required. Many contractors provide only
training required by federal rules.
Splitting the Line
Rescuing an injured worker from a pole top resembles the
process a tree surgeon uses to lower a severed tree limb.
The rescuer climbs the pole, or goes up in a bucket, and splits
the injured worker’s hand-line, which is used to send
up tools, explains Byron Dunn, a recently retired lineman
based in Longmont, Colo. The co-worker takes one end of the
rope and drops it, then takes the other end and wraps twice
it around the crossarm. That end of the rope is then tied
around the injured worker’s chest under his arms, usually
with a knot made of three half-hitches, to avoid crushing
the worker with the rope. The co-worker then cuts the injured
lineman’s "scare strap," the line from the
harness attached to the pole, and lowers him down the rope,
says Dunn, adding that it’s important to make sure the
slack is out before lowering.
Rescuing a worker who has collapsed
from a bucket truck requires an entirely different approach,
says Victor Kraker, safety supervisor for Duquesne Light,
a Pennsylvania electrical utility.
"It’s nearly impossible
to get that worker out of the bucket while it’s still
up high," Kraker says. "We get the boom down, pointing
at the ground and close to it. Then we use an assembly of
ropes and pulleys on the boom and attach the worker’s
harness to it, and pull the worker out of the bucket and lower
him to the ground."
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