Falls from Height: A Guide to Rescue Planning

364 Pages·2013·11.476 MB·English

by  Loui McCurley

FALLS FROM HEIGHT
FALLS FROM HEIGHT
A Guide to Rescue Planning
LOUI M C CURLEY
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as
permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior
written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee
to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone],
fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission
should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street,
Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/
permissions .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts
in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or
completeness of the contents of this book and specifi cally disclaim any implied warranties of
merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales
representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be
suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the
publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profi t or any other commercial damages, including
but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our
Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at
[phone] or fax [phone].
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print
may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web
site at www.wiley.com .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
McCurley, Loui, 1965–
Falls from height : a guide to rescue planning / Loui McCurley.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-09480-8 (hardback)
1. Industrial safety. 2. Falls (Accidents)–Prevention. 3. Rescue work. I. Title.
T55.3.H45M35 2013
658.3 ' 82–dc23
2012049880
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Psalm 86:13
. . . for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD ix
PREFACE xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv
PART I REGULATORY CONSIDERATIONS, RESCUE PLANS,
AND DEVELOPING A RESCUE CAPABILITY
CHAPTER 1 THE REASON FOR RESCUE 3
CHAPTER 2 DEVELOPING A POST-FALL RESCUE PLAN 33
CHAPTER 3 PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND INCIDENT MANAGEMENT 59
PART II EQUIPMENT, SYSTEMS, AND SKILLS
CHAPTER 4 EQUIPMENT FOR CO-WORKER RESPONDERS 81
CHAPTER 5 RESCUE EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS 107
CHAPTER 6 PERSONAL SKILLS FOR RESCUERS 143
PART III PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
CHAPTER 7 PRINCIPLES OF RIGGING 187
CHAPTER 8 SINGLE RESCUER TECHNIQUES 229
CHAPTER 9 GROUP RESCUE METHODS 263
PART IV SUCCESSFUL WORKPLACE PLANNING
CHAPTER 10 INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS 295
CHAPTER 11 PRACTICAL WORKPLACE APPLICATION: YOUR STEP-BY-STEP
GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A CO-WORKER ASSISTED
RESCUE PLAN 327
INDEX 351
vii
FOREWORD
An accident happens. Someone ’ s life is in danger and for most of us the immediate
reaction is to dial 911 or another local rescue service call-out number. That is almost
always the right thing to do but for many workplace accidents, whoever responds
may not be prepared to solve the problem quickly and safely, if at all.
As a 40-year veteran of the rescue service, I know well that all responders
want to help and will often risk their own lives to save the lives of people they do
not even know. Even if they are prepared to help, the time it may take for responders
to reach the accident site, much less access the victim, can be too long in many
locations and environments.
Emergency services dispatchers can send fi re departments, ambulances, and
law enforcement most anywhere in the United States. Areas that have environments
that are diffi cult to access often have plans for calling out specialty rescue teams
that are trained and equipped for mountain, cliff, avalanche, cave, mine, tunnel,
wilderness environment, river, surf, and a host of other specialty technical rescues.
In addition there are military responders like the Coast Guard and Air Force para-
rescue jumpers, ready to respond. Even so, response to diffi cult locations is often
too late for the victim.
Most of us might think that an industrial work site would not be one of the
aforementioned situations. We might assume that a workplace can rely on local
public emergency responder services, particularly in the case of a “simple” fall off
a work surface that is caught by fall protection equipment. The truth is that the
employer has a duty to provide rescue in a timely manner whenever an employee is
injured or in a situation of threat to life. Not only are employers required to provide
proper safety protection, they must also have an effective rescue plan. Just calling
911 is not an effective rescue plan. It may not be the fall that gets you, or the almost
sudden stop as one’ s fall arrestor deploys, but simply the wait for someone to get
you down.
Falls from Height: A Guide to Rescue Planning is about responding to a fall
safely and quickly, be it by your own skills and training, a co-worker, an in-plant
emergency team, or an offsite rescue service. This book covers the regulatory rules,
planning, and training needed to prepare the employer to get the rescue job done.
Many have written about protecting workers from falls but Loui McCurley
takes fall protection to the next step: How do you get the person hanging in a harness
from a lanyard 50 feet in the air over a rack of steam pipes, the person caught in a
net 150 feet in the air and below a stadium roof, the person unconscious 300 feet
up a tower on a caged ladder climb, or the person hanging from a cell phone mono-
pole tower ’ s climbing pegs down quickly? More importantly, how do you do so
without further injury, and with safe techniques for the rescuers?
ix
x FOREWORD
Loui McCurley has been involved in technical rope rescue since 1985. It was
her interest in mountaineering as a sport that has since led to a lifelong career interest
in rescue from height. I fi rst worked with Loui when she was testing (read: “break-
ing”) rescue equipment in simulated fi eld situations in order to fi nd the best pieces
of gear for the job. From the outset, Loui had a passion for fi nding answers and
sharing what she learned with other rescuers. Since the early 1990s she has been the
moving force behind fi nding great presenters for the International Technical Rescue
Symposium, which is dedicated to sharing information among rescuers.
Also in the 1990s, Loui and others began to discuss the formation of an
organization to help promote safety among suspended workers at height. While the
Industrial Rope Access Trade Association existed already, this was a trade associa-
tion for Rope Access c ompanies . A worker-oriented organization had yet to be
founded. Loui quickly took off with that project and organized a small group of
like-minded individuals to found the Society of Professional Ropes Access Techni-
cians (SPRAT). SPRAT represents the interests of the individuals who work at
height, and has certifi ed thousands of rope access workers who are now performing
work at height all over the world.
Through her commitment to safety, supported by her paying job as Senior Vice
President of Pigeon Mountain Industries, Loui has become involved in educating
regulators, equipment manufacturers, and employers of the safety advantages of
utilizing rope access for work at height, and the value of certifi cation as a means of
skills verifi cation. This path has led Loui through a tangled web of national and
international fall protection regulations and standards, and directly back to the place
where she started: a place of deep concern and passion for safety in work at height.
In this one-of-a-kind text, Loui shares her wealth of experience to provide the
reader with a thorough treatise on the subject of preparing for rescue after a fall in
the workplace. In it, she covers all the bases, from who is responsible for what, to
hazard awareness and mitigation, review of existing response protocols, new pre-
plans, and specifi c recommendations on how to get it done. This is a book you can
really use.
Stephen E. Hudson, President
Pigeon Mountain Industries
PREFACE
Whenever fall protection methods are used, the employer has a moral, ethical, and
sometimes legal obligation to provide for prompt rescue (including self-rescue) in
case of a fall.
To effectively prepare for prompt rescue, an employer must evaluate and
understand his or her specifi c rescue needs and make appropriate preparations in
advance. This book is designed to assist safety professionals whose job it is to plan
for the safety of at-height workers, and for those whose responsibility it is to prepare
for and perform post-fall rescue. This is a multi-faceted book, and may be used in
any number of ways, depending on the needs of the reader. Some will fi nd it advan-
tageous to read the text cover-to-cover. Others may fi nd it more benefi cial to custom-
ize the approach to the text, and perhaps even read it in a different order than it is
presented.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is designed for simplicity of use, maximum versatility, and to facilitate
understanding by a variety of users ranging from the most skilled of fi eld practitio-
ners to the corporate executive of health and safety. The text is organized into
chapters, each of which addresses a specifi c aspect of rescue in the workplace. While
each chapter stands alone on a given topic, concepts in some chapters do build upon
concepts that may have been initially introduced in another.
The practitioner who might wish to gain a thorough understanding of all
aspects of the rescue equation may benefi t from reading the book in its entirety, from
front to back, while the industry professional who wishes only to brush up on a few
things might prefer to pick and choose chapters most applicable to his need.
For ease of reference, the 11 chapters are grouped into parts containing related
topics. The parts and chapters are as follows:
Part I: Regulatory Considerations, Rescue Plans, and
Developing a Rescue Capability
This part is a must-read for managers and supervisors. It validates the need for a
rescue program and provides guidance toward achieving maximum results with
minimal resources. It contains three chapters:
• Chapter 1 : The Reason for Rescue. This chapter provides an overview of fall
hazards and reviews the types of falls that occur in industry. It also offers
guidance toward employer responsibilities, explains the role of voluntary
xi
xii PREFACE
consensus standards in relation to regulatory requirements, and offers insights
on the comprehensive managed fall protection plan.
• Chapter 2 : Developing a Post-Fall Rescue Plan. This chapter provides guid-
ance on how to approach the development of a rescue plan, including how to
determine whether a rescue plan is required, what the rescue plan should
contain, and consideration of other hazards. This chapter also offers guidance
on evaluating a response team and coordination with external resources.
• Chapter 3 : Program Development and Incident Management. In this chapter,
the reader will begin to explore the mechanics of the rescue process and gain
a clearer understanding of the differences between personal escape, co-worker
assisted response, and professional rescue. Roles and responsibilities are
defi ned to establish a framework for selecting personnel, training, and manag-
ing an incident.
Part II: Equipment, Systems, and Skills
This part is for the fi eld practitioner who really wants to gain the skills and knowl-
edge to perform rescue at height. It explores requirements for fall protection equip-
ment as compared with rescue equipment, and describes basic skills that every
rescuer should be able to perform.
• Chapter 4 : Equipment for Co-worker Responders. This chapter explores selec-
tion, care, and maintenance of equipment that is worn or used by the rescuer
for safety and rescue.
• Chapter 5 : Rescue Equipment and Systems. In this chapter, the reader gains a
deeper understanding of equipment that is appropriate for life safety and rescue
applications, specifi cally that which is used for rigging. Attention is given to
pre-engineered systems as well as components.
• Chapter 6 : Personal Skills for Rescuers. Here the reader is introduced to the
basic skills that establish a foundation for rescue. Methods for anchoring,
descending, ascending, and patient care are addressed.
Part III: Putting It All Together
This part is of interest to both safety managers and fi eld practitioners. It introduces
systems and techniques for rescue, offers guidance toward bringing the big picture
into focus, and guides thought processes toward specifi c hazards and industry
considerations.
• Chapter 7 : Principles of Rigging. This chapter offers a cursory understanding
of the physics that affect rescue systems and how to use those concepts in
harmony with the equipment introduced in Part II to achieve rescue-related
tasks such as anchoring, lowering, raising, and re-directing a load.
• Chapter 8 : Single Rescuer Techniques. Building on the concepts in Chapter 7 ,
this chapter introduces specifi c methods and techniques that can be used by
PREFACE xiii
one co-worker to rescue another in almost any environment. Step-by-step
guidance is provided to enhance training.
• Chapter 9 : Group Rescue Methods. This chapter also expands the concepts
found in Chapter 7, but this time with specifi c methods and techniques that
are more conducive to a multi-person response. Again, step-by-step guidance
is provided to enhance training.
Part IV: Successful Workplace Planning
This part is primarily of interest to safety managers, although experienced fi eld
practitioners will benefi t from understanding and applying the information in this
part as well. Some particular nuggets that are applicable to various industries may
be found in Chapter 10 .
• Chapter 10 : Industry-Specifi c Considerations. While rescue from fall protec-
tion shares some similarities (such as gravity) regardless of environment, each
unique job involves its own distinctive challenges and hazards based upon
the type of work being performed, the environment, and other factors. This
chapter provides insight into assessing hazards in several common workplace
environments.
• Chapter 11 : Practical Workplace Application. This chapter is a step-by-step
guide for implementing the contents of this book. It contains forms, checklists,
and guidelines that both the manager and the practitioner can use to establish,
perform, and maintain post-fall rescue capabilities in a workplace.
Again, it is important to note that while the chapters in this book attempt to offer a
thorough treatise on their respective subjects, the information from beginning to end
is intertwined and interrelated.
YOUR SUCCESS
It is my deep desire that this book aids you along the way toward greater safety in
your workplace environment, whether you are a worker, a manager, a supervisor, an
employee, or an employer. If you have suggestions or recommendations for future
revisions of this book, or of companion works, I welcome you to share those with
me as I seek to continue in my mission to equip workers at height with tools for
safety.
Stay safe!
Loui McCurley