Heights Rescue- Comms Towers

[2468]

In the hills face zone, hills proper and country areas there are huge comms towers and silos.

Who is responsible for resucing people off them? Do SASES or SACFS have a team that is trained for work at that heights?

Drove up near the hills near Belair and saw the tower there... can any cfs or ses personnell work at that heights?? 

Who practises that type of rescue?

[Chinny]

Umm SA SES, Police (star force), SAAS SOT all work together, I doubt CFS would.

[2468]

But realistically what are their chances of doing it properly as i know that STAR group do diddly squat training to do with heights these days... too busy looking good in mirror

[bittenyakka]

Well there are some BIG towers in my patch and we do diddly squat about heights rescue. Who's going to pay?

[6739264]

Perhaps the Vertical Rescue trained SES and CFS crews in the area?

[bajdas]

Vertical Rescue is a regular training skill item in some SA SES Units. Courses have existed for many years at (I think) three levels.

This does not include a basic abseil which was part of Basic Rescue. Someone else could give more details on the skill levels for each course.

I would assume the skills are also used in the USAR training that is completed by SAAS, SES & MFS crew.

For example, Noarlunga SES have a radio tower which is their and a state training facility. Recently crews were at Brukunga for the State Rescue Competitions and a SES Vertical Rescue Trainer skills refresher course was held in the Flinders Ranges.

I think the highest thing in SA that has a Vertical Rescue scenario for, is a Wind Power Tower.

Generally though they try to get a helicopter involved, but a lot are trained and have the equipment at the local SES Unit.

[jaff]

I listened to a instructional cd on how to encourage people trapped in high rise situations, was very interesting, went something like this. " I was walking down the street one day, when I saw a house on fire, there was a man shouting and screaming from a upper story window, to the crowd gathered there below, for he was so afraid".....Cant quite remember the rest!
The cd is still available for sale, I think the narrators were...English and it was Clive someone and Derek someone!

[boredmatrix]

" I was walking down the street one day, when I saw a house on fire, there was a man shouting and screaming from a upper story window, to the crowd gathered there below, for he was so afraid"   

John chapter 6 V5     

[rescue5271]

I was at the regional training meeting the other night and i would say WATCH THIS SPACE over the next few months....CFS are looking at how the NSWRFS do things working at heights and I guess we will see something coming out later this year.

There is a big push for brigade's to do confine space training and this may be rolling out later this year.....

[2468]

You can't use helicopter to rescue of turbines... it was someones idea who really didn't have any idea!..

Yeah i saw some people working on the comms towers at mt lofty the other day... fairly cool.

I was driving down near lonsdale today and there was a training company with a logo like mfs doing training on the REALLY big tower... looked like fun

[Alex]

Vertical rescue is the responsibility of the starries, assisted by trained SES crews [also possibly MFS/CFS dependant on there training and the area].

But realistically what are their chances of doing it properly as i know that STAR group do diddly squat training to do with heights these days... too busy looking good in mirror

This is a ridiculous comment, of course they all keep there accreditations up and regularly upskill.

Bill - i hope your not meaning CFS would be looking at confined space and vertical rescue? All this would mean is more duplication of resources for a lot of areas.

[fridgemagnet]

Bill, I 2 was also at the regional training meeting and the information that was given out was mainly concerned at ladders and working from ladders. It is my understanding that we (the service)are compliant in regards to this training were the CFS consulted with BHP due to high safety standards which we met.

Confine space is something I would of believed came under the banner of SES. By the way for those who don't know the star force is moving away as a rescue group to that of a more of police special squad

[rescue5271]

In some part of the state where there is no SES but a CFS rescue then they are looking at getting those brigade's to do confine space rescue course not sure why as most RCR brigades already do this in some form.

The ladder and roof issue has been around for sometime,I guess CFS are just trying to cover their rear tail there is gear out there that we can use to get onto roofs but i guess it will come down to costings...If they are that worried about it maybe they should issue the gear so we can get in and out of those high 34 appliances.....

Some people still think its SES job to do every thing but when your the only fire/rescue service in the area it falls back to the local brigade.....

[Baxter]

I know the feeling of being the only emergency service around for 80 km and we do what we can. Infact what we do as a rural stowed brigade dose not quite match the work we actually do. come to think of it I am yet to do a rural incident on our home turf yet in the 1 4.

On the concept of confine space training a work collegue of mine who delivers confine space at TAFE would beg to differ on your approach to what confine space rescue is and what it entials.

Being in the more remote parts of SA we should also consider those all important power lines that keep on collecting vegetative samples for crews to remove

[Tonto Goldstein]

I listened to a instructional cd on how to encourage people trapped in high rise situations, was very interesting, went something like this. " I was walking down the street one day, when I saw a house on fire, there was a man shouting and screaming from a upper story window, to the crowd gathered there below, for he was so afraid".....Cant quite remember the rest!
The cd is still available for sale, I think the narrators were...English and it was Clive someone and Derek someone!

There waaaaaas no blanket!

Best album evar!

[Big Yellow Gongbeater]

Tower rescue is a specialty within the vertical rescue domain. I'd doubt that many (if any) of the Emergency Services (possibly other than SAMFS) have the correct type of equipment and training to undertake it, as towers e.g. comms, power etc present unique hazards not associated with general rope rescue. As for Confined Space Rescue, RCR brigades are not equipped to deal with CSR. CSR is more aligned to Hazmat or USAR than RCR, prerequisites for CSR include CABA,Rope Rescue and Atmospheric Monitoring.  The biggest misconception that some people have (including poster's on this thread) are to confuse Tower Rescue, Confined Space Rescue and Vertical Rescue with Working at Heights and Confined Space Entry.  One level of training is to enable a user to conduct activities (work)in that discipline using a particular level of equipment and procedures, while the other focus's on Rescue from those activities using in most cases completely different equipment and procedures.
  As for who should be doing the rescue's? The closest available resource who can commit to the undertaking the training, and maintaining the skills (it takes more than one training session a year to truly remain competent)irrespective of which agency they are.
  And as for who can deliver this training?  Sorry to respectively inform some of you its not SES (for a whole host of reasons, that should really be on another thread) and you probably wouldn't receive it from SAMFS, and since i'm not into using this place as an advertising endorsment is a company well known to nearly all poster's on here.  And they deliver all of this training Australia wide to all Emergency Service agencies (Public and Industrial) in all states, and part of South East Asia as well

  My thoughts only and possibly for the first time in history my only sensible post..

[2468]

Theres a lot of companies... two in the foot hills, and of course those that work only at Roxby.

Who does the training for the Turbines in SA>?? Local company or Interstate one?

I mean as who does the turbine training could teach the cfs and ses and mfs etc who ever responds... ie closest

[Big Yellow Gongbeater]

Theres a lot of companies... two in the foot hills, and of course those that work only at Roxby.

Who does the training for the Turbines in SA>?? Local company or Interstate one?

I mean as who does the turbine training could teach the cfs and ses and mfs etc who ever responds... ie closest

  Yes there a lot of companies that deliver it, but only a couple are worth their Salt. And BHP Emergency Services use the company I referred to. I also think you'll find that the company that delivers the training to the turbine people only deliver a user specific package that incorporates a rescue component for "their" people and are not RTO's for the delivery of Rescue training for the greater community.

[SA Firey]

As far as rescue goes it is SES/MFS/SAPOL who are trained for Vertical Rescue, so depending on the area the incident is and the use of additional resources would be the key.Regular training sessions are advised for this and I doubt CFS would go down this road for courses, as they cant even reaccredit you after your chainsaw qualification runs out

As for confined space this is a qualification that has to be reaccredited annually under OHS&W

A confined space is defined as follows:

Confined space – an enclosed or partially enclosed space that is at atmospheric pressure during occupancy and is not intended or designed primarily as a place of work, and is liable at anytime to:

have an atmosphere, which contains potentially harmful levels of contaminant; or
have an oxygen deficiency or excess; or
cause engulfment and
could have restricted means for entry and exit

PS Welcome back Gongy

[2468]

Ah different company to one i'm thinking of. I did a course with one and it felt just a week of sale pitch for the system hardware and software they were selling...

And they don't work over 150 feet... rang last week to see... kinda weak with a turbine over 80m

Just wondering cause when i drive up to the mines i've seen them training on the turbines... would be bitch of a rescue though.

[Big Yellow Gongbeater]

Ah different company to one i'm thinking of. I did a course with one and it felt just a week of sale pitch for the system hardware and software they were selling...

And they don't work over 150 feet... rang last week to see... kinda weak with a turbine over 80m

Just wondering cause when i drive up to the mines i've seen them training on the turbines... would be bitch of a rescue though.

  I'd be guessing you definitely were looking at a different company.  As the one I referred to, doesn't push the sales pitch. 
As for not working over 150feet (30M) I wouldn't get bent out of shape about it, have you ever had to climb a tower? I can tell you its not just a quick shimmy up, especially when you've got rescue gear clipped to you. And at the end of the day it doesn't make too much of a difference if its 10m or 110m (just a filtered long climb) the techniques are exactly the same.  Hence doing 80M climbs just for the sake of doing them on a course would decrease the amount of time available to work on skills. For your reference it takes approx 30mins to 60mins+ (If you're lead climbing without a ladsaf system) to climb a 60M tower (with all your rescue gear just to start a main line and secure the casualty) and that's a fairly fit person.  You would be looking at somewhere between 1 to 1 1/2 hours (if not longer) from arrival to having the person down at this height!

Hey SA Firey, can't work out how i'm back and entertaining a civil discussion in a thread without attempting to piss people off. Eh normal transmission to resume shortly, better break out the Kleenex 

[K99]

The last time we had someone trapped up a tower, we put a bag of Hungry Jacks at the bottom of the tower. Eventually the person became hungry and climbed down unaided.
This way, the only person put at risk was himself.

P.S He even gave me most of his fries.

[Big Yellow Gongbeater]

The last time we had someone trapped up a tower, we put a bag of Hungry Jacks at the bottom of the tower. Eventually the person became hungry and climbed down unaided.
This way, the only person put at risk was himself.

P.S He even gave me most of his fries.

Hopefully the RF signal or transmission line wasn't isolated and kept everything nice and warm, nothing worse than soggy fries