We were so excited to see all the applicants for our Fire Department Scholarship Program – we decided to pick 10 instead of 1! The following individuals were selected to attend a Roco Urban/Industrial Rescue Essentials™ Course at no charge at the Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge. 

Roco Rescue hopes that this free training will help broaden the range of skills in confined space and rope rescue for firefighters and their departments.

Click button below if you are interested in applying for the next Fire Department Scholarship Program selection.

Offer valid for USA-based emergency responders only based on space availability. Must be 18 years or older and physically fit to participate in hands-on rescue exercises. Offer is valid for limited time and subject to change without notice. 

In the process of making paper, everything is big. From the logs that are cut from the dense forests of the south to the giant equipment used to push through huge piles of wood chips, the sheer size of the operation poses unique challenges for the crews working in this industry. For one southern rescue team in late 2022, those challenges would test both their training and their resolve.

December weather can be tricky in the south. Warm days followed by chilly nights can make conditions on the chip pile unpredictable. When the chip pile is 50 feet tall and hundreds of feet long, small changes in the moisture level and temperature of the wood chunks can have drastic results. On this night, the operator of a D9 Dozer was working the top of the pile moving chips towards the conveyor belt that pulls the chip into the feeder from the bottom of the pile. Changing conditions above the conveyor belt often result in small void spaces or bridges that are safely pushed back down by the weight of the dozer. The workhorse of moving dirt, the D9 is a spectacular piece of equipment. Thirteen feet tall, 27 feet long, and 54 tons of pure power, the D9 easily moves over the pile to keep chips moving into the plant.

Just before 8:00 PM, the dozer operator called the plant on his cell phone. While backing along the pile, the weight of the dozer collapsed a bridge under the pile. Not the common small bridge that wouldn’t even be noticed by the operator, this one was big, beyond the comprehension of even the longest-term employees. The bridge didn’t just collapse, it consumed the dozer. 

When rescuers arrived, only the blade of the dozer was visible, and it was facing straight up toward the now-black night sky. The huge earth mover had fallen backward into the collapsing hole, the force of the impact shattering the rear window, slamming chips into the cab behind the operator. With a rapidly dying cell phone battery, the operator stated that he was trapped in complete darkness below more than 20 feet of wood chips.

The rescue operation was led by a long-time member of the rescue team. Even when supervisors and safety managers arrived, the operation continued to be directed and led by that team member. The managers and safety department personnel seamlessly slipped into the roles of logistical support and safety officer. As more rescue team members arrived, the dig teams began the excavation.

Over the next 3-1/2 hours, a dozen rescuers rotated through 20-30 minute shifts moving wood chips by hand. With a now-dead cell phone, the operator was able to update the team by radio. As the rescue operation moved deeper into the night, it became apparent that the dozer operator was weakening, leading the rescue team to believe that the oxygen in the cab was being consumed at a rate that was faster than the rescue excavation.

As the hole expanded, the team needed rope systems to support their climbs in and out of the hole in the pile. Another dozer was gingerly moved to the top of the pile to create a portable anchor for the rope systems. Rescuers struggled to contain the flowing wood chip that continuously rolled back into the hole. At one point hours into the rescue, a track hoe was brought next to the pile to move the edges away to reduce roll-in material, but the bulk of the work was done by hand.

With the operator weakening, rescuers finally made it to the cab near midnight, 3-1/2 hours into the operation. With the very real possibility of a secondary collapse when the cab door was opened, the rescue team was forced to make the decision whether to open the hole wider or move the rapidly deteriorating patient now. The decision was made to make the move. A SKED stretcher was moved into position and a 3:1 mechanical advantage was built and made ready to haul. The door was opened and rescuers made entry into the cab, quickly transferring the patient to the SKED who was then hauled up the slope of the excavation.

The dozer operator was transferred to EMS who transported him to a local hospital where he was treated for symptoms of heat stroke, dehydration, and mild hypoxia. He was treated and later released with no long-term issues. The safety manager credits the operator’s off-shore helicopter crash survival simulator training with keeping him calm and preserving the air supply in the cab.

Roco Rescue was honored to present this talented and dedicated rescue team with the Roco “Real Rescue” plaque. Their dogged determination and training resulted in a great outcome for a very lucky heavy equipment operator.

Roco Would Like to Recognize Your Outstanding Rope Rescue!

Nominate your rescue team for a free Roco Outstanding Rope Rescue Plaque. All reports that we receive highlighting an actual rescue event will be considered

Click here to download the Real Rescue Form. You can then email form to info@RocoRescue.com.

Roco Rescue was the proud recipient of a support and dedication award from the Baton Rouge Fire Department recently in a ceremony conducted at the Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge. Fire Chief Michael Kimble and Paul Stockstill presented the plaque to Chris Carlsen, Director of Training for Roco Rescue, along with several Roco Instructors.

“We wanted to give Roco something to thank them for all that they have done to help BRFD bring their rescue training to the next level,” Chief Kimble said. He added, “We share a common mission to keep emergency responders trained to respond safer and more effectively.”

Roco will continue its efforts to maximize support for municipal emergency responder wherever we can. Roco has the unique opportunity to influence not only the regulatory frameworks that shape the rescue industry, but also the techniques that are used by emergency responders on a daily basis.

This plaque from the BRFD acknowledges Roco’s on-going efforts to support emergency responders and is therefore very special to us. It is an honor to be recognized.

NFPA has started a process of grouping related standards into one volume. For example, it has now grouped NFPA 1983, 1858, and 1670 into one volume, NFPA 2500, “Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents and Life Safety Rope and Equipment for Emergency Services.”

So, NFPA 2500 will include all three of these standards. However, NPFA 1006 “Professional Qualifications for Technical Rescuers” still remains a separate document.

According to a blog post by CEO Loui McCurley of PMI, one of the most noticeable changes will probably be on equipment that will now be marked with NFPA 2500 instead of NFPA 1983. NFPA has decided to include the old standard numbers as a reference. For example, equipment previously would have been marked:

                                    NFPA 1983 (2017 ED)

It will now look more like this…

                                    NFPA 2500 (1983) 2022 ED

There will be a “G”, “T” or “E” to indicate General Use, Technical Use or Escape.

The big change is that as of Spring 2023, manufacturers must stop selling equipment marked to the 2017 edition of 1983. Retailers will still be able to sell the equipment until their stocks are depleted.

Your next question might be, “Will users be required to switch to the new NFPA 2500 marked equipment?” Or, “When must I stop using NFPA 1983 marked equipment?”

There is no NFPA requirement that says you have to use or buy equipment meeting the most current version of any standard. Ms. McCurley indicates that the good news is that there were not significant technical changes to the standard, so most all equipment properly certified to NFPA 1983 (2017) will also meet the NFPA 2500 (2022) standard.

Thank you to Loui McCurley, CEO of PMI, for providing the reference material here. Several videos about this topic are available at www.pmirope.com.

Additional Resources

• Q&A: 11mm Rope and NFPA Requirements

• Confined Space Rescue Types Chart & Compliance Guide
  
  
  
  
  

Your company has a strong safety culture with outstanding employee participation. Everyone is committed to safety and goes out of their way to do things in the safest way possible. As a safety professional, everything is great in your world until suddenly, a “near-miss” report lands on your desk. Supervisors, managers, and company executives are now concerned, worried, or even stressed out about the fact that something unsafe just happened at their company! Many would-be quick to speculate that a near miss is a bad thing; however, as a safety professional, you know that this is not necessarily the case. The reality is, a near-miss or “good catch” report can be one of the most valuable tools for improving your company’s safety program.

What is a Near Miss?

According to OSHA, a Near Miss is an unplanned event that did not result in an injury, illness, or damage – but under different circumstances, could have. Your company may have another term for a near miss such as “close call,” “good catch,” “narrow escape,” “near hit,” “cliffhangers,” or a number of other terms. However, at the end of the day, these are all near misses. Near misses are caused by the same things as accidents: unsafe conditions and/or unsafe behaviors. Near misses are often precursors to accidents and should not be ignored. In fact, according to the National Safety Council (NSC), 75% of all accidents are preceded by one or more near misses.

Heinrich’s Law and Bird’s Safety Triangle

In 1931, Herbert Heinrich published Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach where he proposed a concept that would eventually become known as “Heinrich’s Law.” Heinrich’s law states that for every accident that causes a major injury, there are 29 accidents that cause minor injuries and 300 accidents that cause no injury (i.e., near misses).

Years later, Frank Bird analyzed nearly 2 million incident reports from over 300 companies and used his findings to amend and expand upon Heinrich’s theory. Bird developed the “Safety Triangle” (depicted here) which states that for every fatality, there will be 10 serious accidents, 30 minor accidents, 600 near misses, and an unknown, but significant number of unsafe acts. The important thing to take away from this is that near-miss reports should be taken seriously, investigated, and used to prevent future incidents.

Near Miss Reported – Now What?

A Near Miss report is submitted. You’re thankful that it wasn’t an injury report, but you also realize that this could have easily been one under different circumstances. You also realize that this is a potential precursor to something worse, so now what? The answer – Root Cause Analysis. There are many different models to choose from when conducting RCAs. The “5-why” is one of the most popular choices due to its simplicity; it is also recommended in ANSI Z-10 Standard for Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems. There are other formats that are equally effective such as the fishbone diagram, also known as the Ishikawa diagram, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), scatter plots, and many others. What format or method you choose is not as important as actually performing RCAs in the first place. The key takeaway here is, use whatever format you are most comfortable with, as long as you ensure that RCAs are performed when necessary.

There’s almost always a deeper root cause to why a near-miss occurred. While there may be an obvious reason on the surface level, by digging a little deeper into the situation, you may find that there’s more than meets the eye. Correcting the immediate cause may help to resolve the symptom of the problem, but not the problem itself.

For example, a worker at your facility slips in a puddle of water on the floor and falls. The worker is not injured and as a result, a near-miss report was submitted. The investigation should not conclude with “employee slipped in puddle and fell – instructed employee to be more aware of their surroundings.” An effective root cause analysis would instead look for deeper issues, such as:

• Why was the puddle there in the first place?
• Where there changes in the environment, weather, conditions, or a process?
• What was the source of the water?
• What tasks were being performed when the water was spilled?
• Why was the water not cleaned up?
• How long was the water there?
• Was the spill reported?

By performing a root cause analysis, you may learn that it was raining on the day of the near-miss and that the roof in your warehouse has developed a leak, causing a puddle of water to form, creating the unsafe condition that led to the incident. Simply instructing the employee to be more aware of the surroundings may prevent them from slipping again; however, it will not prevent the unsafe condition from reoccurring. The true root cause needs to be addressed; the roof must be repaired.

OSHA provides a great resource for Root Cause Analysis here.

Improving Your Company’s Near Miss Program

You’ve received a near miss, conducted an investigation, identified a true root cause, and took corrective action to eliminate it; now you see the tremendous benefit of near-miss reporting. Then ask what can you do to improve your company’s near-miss program?

1. Keep the reporting process simple.

Consider implementing google forms, phone applications, or even a universal near-miss email address. The key is to make the process to submit a near-miss as easy, quick, and painless as possible. For example, many companies now create QR codes that can be scanned, taking personnel right to the form to complete and submit. This can all be done for free with readily available resources around the internet.

2. Train employees on the importance of near-miss reporting.

If employees don’t recognize the importance of near-miss reporting, they will have no interest in doing so. Ensure that employees know the benefits of near-miss reporting.

3. Keep near-miss reports non-punitive.

No one wants to willingly broadcast their mistakes, especially if they will be punished for doing so. Punishing an employee who submits a near-miss report is a sure-fire way to send a message that safety may not rank as high on the priority list as you claim. This is also a guaranteed way to discourage employees from participating in the program. On the other hand, when near-miss reporting is rewarded, it can change their mindset.

4. Incentivize the program.

Even if employees know the benefits of a near-miss program and know that it will be non-punitive, they may still need a little encouragement to do so. Consider implementing a periodic drawing for all who submit near-miss reports. Alternatively, consider highlighting the best near-miss submitted for the month to promote quality participation.

5. Celebrate and communicate your success.

Perhaps the most important part of a successful near-miss program is communicating your findings and celebrating your success. Communication should be transparent but does not have to be so transparent that it includes every detail of the situation. Include highlights of the near-miss and the corrective actions that will be taken to prevent them in the future. Communicating your findings could help prevent other incidents as well.

Summary

When your employees know they can openly report an incident or mishap without being reprimanded, it can encourage more open communications and improved safety awareness. Most certainly, it gives you the opportunity to take corrective action and prevent a more serious injury, or worse. Actively promoting employee involvement via near-miss reporting will provide a boost to your overall safety program and result in a safer worksite for everyone. A “good catch” is a good catch for all concerned.

Chris McGlynn is a dynamic safety leader who serves as the Director of Safety at Roco Rescue and is dedicated to amplifying the company's safety success. As a Certified Safety Professional, Confined Space and Rope Rescue Technician, and Paramedic, Chris leverages his expertise to provide employees with the necessary tools, training, and support to work safely and efficiently. He also oversees Roco Safety Services, offering high-caliber safety professionals for special projects and turnarounds. As the VPP Coordinator, Chris ensures that Roco maintains its status as an OSHA VPP Star Worksite, continuing the company’s unwavering commitment to excellence in safety and health. Roco has been an OSHA VPP Star Worksite since 2013.

Follow Chris 

Additional Resources

• Want a Safer Workplace? Get Employees Involved!

• How to Make an Impact as Safety Professionals