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Safety first
Safety first Woanderings of Waki
A
Warren K. Kingsley, founding editor of CH&S and a chair of DivCHAS, is a nationally known safety professor, innovator, educator, lecturer, author, and administrator.
1074-9098/01/$20.00 PII S1074-9098(01)00268-4
long time ago we arranged for a New York City Firefighter to run a training course for us in the use of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA). We rented a local fire company’s facility and used their tower, three stories in height, for the course. The firefighter, a lieutenant, patiently walked us through the care and use of the SCBA and tested each one of us to make sure that we thoroughly understood how to make sure they fit properly and when to use them. After he was sure that all of us could undertake the task at hand, he proceeded up the tower, fully equipped, and lit a toluene fire in a large pan on the top floor of the structure. Immediately the tower filled with black smoke and he came down and exited the building coated in the residue. The firefighter took two people at a time to the top of the structure to put out the fire. The trip up was exhausting. Black smoke was so thick you could not see your hand immediately in front of your face. We crept low to be able to determine if we could see. At a distance of about 18 inches from the floor we were able to see the stairway. We carried not only the SCBA, but also the fire fighting equipment, carbon dioxide extinguishers. We made it to the top, extinguished the fire, and got out of the place as quickly as we could. Some of us made the trip twice but the firefighter made it 6 times. Each trip up and down took about 10 minutes. Almost all of us had come close to exhausting our air supply, but the firefighter still had air in his original bottle at the end of the session. We questioned him about the remarkable calmness he exhibited. He replied, “One of the major factors in being safe in any environment is not to panic. It is that control of your emotions that allows you to help people who are injured or in need of your help.” I have always
considered that to be one of the best pieces of advice I ever received. Safety First is a motto that has been used by thousands of companies throughout these United States. I don’t know of anyone who has asked the question: “Whose?” The recent tragedy in New York City answered the question for me: The safety of the person you are saving. In the destruction of the World Trade Center, some 300 firefighters and 200 police have lost their lives practicing “Safety First,” not theirs, but the safety of the people they were attempting to save. Stories are told of how people rushing down the stairs of the buildings had to move to one side of the stairwell to allow fire fighters to rush up. This happened in both of the towers, even at the time that the first part of the collapse of the upper floors was starting. These dedicated public servants were practicing what that New York City Fire Department Lieutenant had told me so many years ago: “Don’t Panic.” Their “Safety First” applied to the people in the building, not the fires, not the collapse of the building, but the safe evacuation of the occupants; certainly not to themselves. I don’t know many people involved in the safety of the worker with this kind of dedication. We can devise rules and regulations dealing with safety. We can examine, audit, and inspect to make the workplace safe. But we cannot account for every eventuality. The tragedy at the World Trade Center is an excellent example of that. For all of us involved in safety there will always be the possibility of an unexpected disaster. Will we, when the time comes, define safety first the way the New York Fire Department does? I hope we never have to find out. In the meantime we can always hope that there is such a person around if we find ourselves in a situation like that of September 11, 2001 in New York City.
© Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society Published by Elsevier Science Inc.
41
A
Warren K. Kingsley, founding editor of CH&S and a chair of DivCHAS, is a nationally known safety professor, innovator, educator, lecturer, author, and administrator.
1074-9098/01/$20.00 PII S1074-9098(01)00268-4
long time ago we arranged for a New York City Firefighter to run a training course for us in the use of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA). We rented a local fire company’s facility and used their tower, three stories in height, for the course. The firefighter, a lieutenant, patiently walked us through the care and use of the SCBA and tested each one of us to make sure that we thoroughly understood how to make sure they fit properly and when to use them. After he was sure that all of us could undertake the task at hand, he proceeded up the tower, fully equipped, and lit a toluene fire in a large pan on the top floor of the structure. Immediately the tower filled with black smoke and he came down and exited the building coated in the residue. The firefighter took two people at a time to the top of the structure to put out the fire. The trip up was exhausting. Black smoke was so thick you could not see your hand immediately in front of your face. We crept low to be able to determine if we could see. At a distance of about 18 inches from the floor we were able to see the stairway. We carried not only the SCBA, but also the fire fighting equipment, carbon dioxide extinguishers. We made it to the top, extinguished the fire, and got out of the place as quickly as we could. Some of us made the trip twice but the firefighter made it 6 times. Each trip up and down took about 10 minutes. Almost all of us had come close to exhausting our air supply, but the firefighter still had air in his original bottle at the end of the session. We questioned him about the remarkable calmness he exhibited. He replied, “One of the major factors in being safe in any environment is not to panic. It is that control of your emotions that allows you to help people who are injured or in need of your help.” I have always
considered that to be one of the best pieces of advice I ever received. Safety First is a motto that has been used by thousands of companies throughout these United States. I don’t know of anyone who has asked the question: “Whose?” The recent tragedy in New York City answered the question for me: The safety of the person you are saving. In the destruction of the World Trade Center, some 300 firefighters and 200 police have lost their lives practicing “Safety First,” not theirs, but the safety of the people they were attempting to save. Stories are told of how people rushing down the stairs of the buildings had to move to one side of the stairwell to allow fire fighters to rush up. This happened in both of the towers, even at the time that the first part of the collapse of the upper floors was starting. These dedicated public servants were practicing what that New York City Fire Department Lieutenant had told me so many years ago: “Don’t Panic.” Their “Safety First” applied to the people in the building, not the fires, not the collapse of the building, but the safe evacuation of the occupants; certainly not to themselves. I don’t know many people involved in the safety of the worker with this kind of dedication. We can devise rules and regulations dealing with safety. We can examine, audit, and inspect to make the workplace safe. But we cannot account for every eventuality. The tragedy at the World Trade Center is an excellent example of that. For all of us involved in safety there will always be the possibility of an unexpected disaster. Will we, when the time comes, define safety first the way the New York Fire Department does? I hope we never have to find out. In the meantime we can always hope that there is such a person around if we find ourselves in a situation like that of September 11, 2001 in New York City.
© Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society Published by Elsevier Science Inc.
41