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Linemen win state poletop rescue competition
Warehouseman places in forklift competition
EPHRATA -- Grant County Public Utility District Lineman Scott Elliott and Apprentice Lineman Buck Gillmore earned the top spot among nine crack lineman teams from around Washington state in the annual poletop rescue competition at the 55th Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference. Warehouse Foreman John Millard captured 7 th place in the state forklift competition.
Electric utility’s send well trained two-man lineman teams to a competition involving the rescue of a shocked and injured lineman atop a power pole. Electrical linemen are required to be trained for safe and rapid rescue of an injured co-worker. The annual rescue competition helps sharpen these necessary on-the-job skills.
This year’s competition in Spokane on Sept. 26-28 tested utility rescue teams with a particularly difficult rescue scenario. A full-size rescue dummy is held in place by a safety climbing belt near the top of a wooden power pole and in contact with poletop electrical equipment.
No advanced information regarding the exact situation is available to the linemen. When each team starts their rescue effort, they must first assess the accident scene, quickly devise a rescue plan, call for help, send one man up the pole using climbing spikes, de-energize the electrical equipment, check the rescue dummy for injuries, secure the dummy, low him to the ground, and perform CPR.
All of this is timed and evaluated by judges.
Grant PUD’s team really savored this victory. They were the only team to include an apprentice lineman (still involved in training) in this highly demanding rescue competition.
Elliott and Gillmore now qualify for the next International Lineman’s Rodeo competition to be held in Kansas in 2007.
“The forklift competition was very competitive with tight scoring,” said Gale Ham, Grant PUD’s Safety and Health Manager.
In addition, 13 Grant PUD employees and employees from Seattle City Light’s Boundary Dam demonstrated rescue of a worker injured in a tight, confined space. Employees who work in limited-space conditions that are present at dams regularly train for these types of rescues to be prepared in the event of an accident. Seattle City Light has a demonstration trailer that enabled the crews to perform this exhibition at the conference.
The Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference provides resources to assist in design and maintenance of a sound safety and healthy culture at workplaces. The benefits include: reduced injuries, less time lost from work, and money saved on industrial insurance premiums.
Grant PUD linemen Buck Gilmore and Scott Elliott win
the 2006 Governor's Safety Conference Pole Top Rescue Competition.
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