Confined Space and Metro Fire

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Confined Space and Metro Fire

• Rescue 21
• Engine 21

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Rescue 21 Staffing of 4

• High angle/low angle rope
• Building collapse
• Water
• Confined space
• Trench
• RIC -Rapid Intervention Crew
• Vehicle Extrication

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Engine 21Staffing of 3

• Cross Trained
• ALS (Paramedic)
• Hose, Water pump
• General Firefighting

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What to expect from Metro Fire

• First due engine company
• Medic (ambulance)
• Battalion Chief
• Closet Truck Company
• Rescue 21 Engine 21
• Hazardous Materials unit
• Overhead personnel (PIO)

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Recognize the Danger

• A major cause of confined space
  injuries/fatalities is the failure to recognize
  the incident for what it is.
• A CONFINED SPACE INCIDENT !

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Always keep in mind

• The Survival Profile of Victim !!!!!
• According to statistic we are going after victims
  not patients
• Provision for non-entry rescue
• Every C.S. incident will be investigated by OSHA.
• Entry into a C.S. is mission specific

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OSHA will be looking for

• The C.S. to determine if it meets the
  requirements for a Permit Required Confined Space
  (p.r.s.c.)
• Two permits
• Training records (authorized)
• Provision(s) for non-entry rescue

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3 Most Common OSHA Citations issued in Calif.

• Failure to provide hazard(s) communication to
  rescuers
• Failure to provide appropriate equipment
• Failure to provide training on equipment

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Regulations

• AB 111 negligent supervisor
• AB 1127 The Big One Jan. 2000
• Title 8 CCR GISO 5156, 5157 5158

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Assembly Bill 111

• One of the first regulatory laws enacted to hold
  C.S. entrants accountable.

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AB 1127

• Enacted in January 2000. Says we show up, allow
  something to happen, somebody gets
  injured/killed, we share responsibility.
• Is Prosecuted as a Felony!!

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Title 8 CCR, 5156

• Grants an exclusion to
• Construction operations
• Agricultural operations
• Marine terminal operations
• Shipyard operations
• Telecommunications manholes/Vaults
• Grain handling facilities
• Natural gas distribution
• Electrical utility operations underground vaults

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Title 8 CCR, 5157

• Specific requirements on how to enter a Permit
  Required Confined Space.
• Applies to Rescue Companies
• Lists the mandatory components
• Includes appendices that may be enforceable by
  OSHA

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Title 8 CCR, 5158

• Lists requirements for those 8 industries that
  are exempted under 5156(b) (2)

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A Confined Space is

• An area large enough and so configured that an
  employee can bodily enter to perform assigned
  work and
• Has limited or restricted means for entry/egress
  and
• Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy

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Types of Confined Spaces

• Sewers
• Railroads Cars
• Vaults and pits
• Vessels, silos, storage bins
• Hoppers, pipelines

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Reason for Entering A Confined Space

• Cleaning
• Inspections
• Maintenance
• Training
• Rescue

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A Permit Required Confined Space

• Contains or has the potential to contain a
  hazardous atmosphere or,
• Contains a material that has the potential for
  engulfing an entrant or,
• Has an internal configuration such that an
  entrant could become trapped or asphyxiated by
  inwardly converging walls or by a floor which
  slopes downward and tapers to a smaller
  cross-section or,
• Contains any other recognized serious safety or
  health hazard

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Silos -Industrial or Agricultural
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Manholes- Sanitary or Storm
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What are the Hazards to Rescuers at C.S.
incidents?

• Atmosphere 65
• Engulfment 13
• Bridging
• Physical 7
• Corrosive
• Biological
• Psychological

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OSHA Says these are Mandatory Positions

• Entry Supervisor
• Attendant
• Entrant
• Back-up entrant

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What is an Entry?

• The action by which a person passes through an
  opening into a permit required confined space,
  and includes ensuing work activities in that
  space
• Considered to have occurred as soon as any part
  of the entrants body breaks the plane of an
  opening into the space

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Mandatory Components for a C.S. entry

• Written Policy (including Permit)
• Lock out/Tag out
• Provide rescue/standby
• Atmospheric monitoring
• Communications
• Ventilation (unless it increases hazard)
• Retrieval Line (provision for non-entry rescue)
• Appropriate harness
• Mechanical Advantage if gt 5 fall

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Lock Out/Tag Out is.

• Isolation
• Purging
• Inerting
• Ventilation
• Barricades
• Lock out/tag out

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Lock-Out/Tag-Out Kit

• Padlocks
• Hasps tags
• Plug valve covers
• Chain
• Electrical Tester

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Reasons for Monitoring

• Assess the survival profile of the victim
• Atmospheres are the 1 killer of C.S. occupants

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Hazardous Atmospheres

• Oxygen levels below 19.5 or above 23.5
• Atmosphere at or above 10 of the LEL
• Airborne combustible dusts which reduce vision to
  5 or less
• Atmosphere with products/vapors at or above their
  IDLH levels.

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What are we monitoring for ?

• Oxygen
• Flammable/Explosive atmospheres
• Selected toxics
• Usually CO H2S

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Oxygen

• -Recorded as a
• -OSHA says 19.5 - 23.5 is
• acceptable entry range
• -Oxygen is always checked first

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Flammable or Explosive atmospheres

• Usually recorded as LEL. ppm or gas
• 10 of the LEL is the upper limit for entry
• Difference between LEL 100 vapor 100

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Hydrogen Sulfide H2S

• Colorless, odor of rotten eggs
• Destroys olfactory senses
• Ppm, 10 ppm entry limit

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Carbon Monoxide (CO)

• Colorless, odorless, explosive
• ppm
• 25 ppm is limit for entry

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How we monitor

• Prior to entry (approach monitoring)
• Continuously during entry
• At 4 intervals
• DOCUMENT

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Communications

• 5157 states mandatory between Attendant Entrant
• Radio
• Hardwired
• Rope signals O.A.T.H.

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Ventilation

• Increases survivability profile
• - reduces LELs to safe levels
• - temperature conducive for human
• habitation
• Replaces contaminated air
• Air exchanges
• Reduces explosion chances

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Retrieval System

• The equipment including a retrieval line, class
  III harness, wristlets, if appropriate, (and
  lifting device) used for non-entry rescue of
  workers from a permit-required confined space

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Mechanical Advantage

• Required for vertical C.S. more than 5 deep
• Hand operated, approved winch w/ cable
• Rope and pulleys with brake
• Not considered the retrieval line

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Types of Respiratory Protection

• APR - Air Purifying Respirator
• SCBA Self Contained Breathing Apparatus
• SAR - Supplied Air Respirator

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Recognize exposure to yourself co-workers

• Headache
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Smell or rotten eggs
• Euphoria

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Any Questions?

• Thank you