Whether writing about roofers last October was a coincidence or a foreboding that something roofing-related was about to happen, I will never know.

On November 2^nd, the training facility and home to all of Mentor’s safety training equipment came under fire, literally. I am happy to say that there were no injuries or worse; however, I want to outline the impact this event had to all parties involved.

Of course it is important to get to the root cause of this fire. On that day, roofers were replacing a flat-roof top using torches to heat the materials needed to create the vapour barrier. From videos I have watched, flat-roof installation is a labour-intensive process with many inherent hazards. How ever it happened, the root cause and blame needed to be determined as the facility owners and insurance companies had to reach an agreement as to who was responsible. There are so many “could have beens” that must be considered.

From Mentor’s health and safety standpoint, the following questions arose:

1. Did the roofing company have a safety plan and procedures for the work to be done?
2. Were the roofers trained on correct roofing procedures, the correct use of equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE) and materials?
3. When the fire was detected, what safety protocol was in place for the roofers to follow?
4. Who was responsible for calling for help?
5. Was there a meeting place for the roofers to congregate once they descended from the roof to account for the presence of all workers?

When firefighters arrived, they were able to get the fire under control, but not before significant smoke and material damage had occurred. Here are some of the things the firefighters had to consider before entering the building:

1. Was everyone on-site accounted for?
2. What risks were present in the event that the fire couldn’t be contained and spread to neighbouring industrial units? (As it happened, an adjacent unit stored chemicals, a major and potentially hazardous situation.)
3. Did all the industrial units have their safety binders with their safety data sheets readily available?
4. Who was the spokesperson for: the roofing company, the occupants of the industrial units, anyone else with knowledge of the facility and businesses involved?

After the fire was extinguished, there was much to do. While I can’t speak to the other units involved, Mentor’s post fire recovery program has been an ongoing process.

1. The premises required inspection for structural damage and other safety concerns.
2. The various pieces of training equipment needed to be inspected for integrity and safety, e.g. the fork lift, scissor lift, personal protective equipment such as harnesses, lanyards and lifelines and the trailer used for confined space extraction training.
3. Equipment that was undamaged still needed deep cleaning to make it serviceable.
4. An alternate training facility needed to be found until the regular space is once again usable.

Now, ten months later, we are hopeful to be able to occupy the restored space by early October.

This is a very basic summary of the actual and very alarming event that happened to our safety training company. Fortunately we can look upon it as a personal learning experience to share with all our clients. Nothing speaks louder than having lived it. If we can help others with our story, then perhaps it was worthwhile.

In the grand scheme of things and in deep gratitude, Mentor considers itself fortunate that this was an inconvenient but non-disastrous event.  

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the second week of October

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post MENTOR SAFETY UNDER FIRE appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.

–Carola Mittag
I’m not a builder; however, every year before Christmas, I singlehandedly build an entire village. It’s not your traditional build as the homes are prefab, the streetscape is haphazard, and all this done under heavy snow and unlit conditions until the electrician in me adds the lighting. This project takes approximately two days.  

It is my beautiful Christmas Village which I curse from the moment I dust off the boxes containing all the houses, figurines and wires for the individual lights that light up the houses. It is a chore, and this year I vowed that it would be the last time because of all the work.

Then I thought of my parents who purchased these houses over time and what joy they had in setting them up. My parents are both gone but this little village brings back wonderful memories of both, them and Christmases past so, no I will not get rid of the village. Setting it up will always be a labour of love.

But this year I made a change to the village. Because of its approximate thirty-year age the houses were still individually lit by small, incandescent bulbs with a wire running to each house and needing to be plugged in to a power bar. Because there are eleven houses, I needed two power bars end-to-end to plug into the wall outlet. This already made me uncomfortable. As I was clipping one of the lights into the Faversham Lamps and Oils House, (a little irony here I think), the little bulb exploded in my hand, leaving lots of tiny glass shards in my palm and an exposed filament (a wire filament heated until it glows) laying on the artificial, very flammable snow.

Things I did wrong:

• I didn’t check the bulbs to see if they were working before I clipped them into their respective houses.
• I was trying to skip a step to save time by not checking the bulbs first.
• I should never have used two power bars end-to-end. How many times are we warned not to overload sockets with multiple extenders?
• I was working with live wires. I should have left all the wires unplugged until the bulbs were clipped into their respective houses.

Building my small village could have had dire consequences. I learned that even my build should have had a work and safety plan in place. Lesson learned! The footnote to this story is that I purchased a string of low wattage LED lights which I “ran through the village right to the traffic stop”, (words from Frosty the Snowman). The village looks beautiful with its modern lighting, and I feel much safer knowing that I have minimized the risk of fire in my home.

Of course there is a moral to my story. My miniature Dickens’ Village could have caused a major, disastrous event in the actual village that I live in. Construction is a dangerous business in real life. It’s no wonder that without proper planning, the right tools, personal protective equipment, training and knowledge, tragic consequences can result.

It is Christmastime. I wish you dear readers a wonderful holiday and a time of reflection and joy with family and friends. I’ll leave you with this message from Dr. Seuss:

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the first week of January.

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post CHRISTMAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.

On these walks I regularly see roofers at work. All too often the workers are young, students perhaps or those with minimal education and doing a job that is both hard and hard on the body. Naturally I wonder what kind of training they’ve been given. How often I shudder when I see them working without the personal protective equipment needed for the job. Worse still are the workers who are wearing their safety harnesses, however, attached to nothing. Usually, the ropes and lanyards are lying on the roof.

Three hazards in one:

1. The workers are wearing harnesses that hamper them but aren’t doing the job for which they are intended because they’re not attached to a lifeline.
2. The ropes and lanyards just lying on the roof are a tripping hazard.
3. Worker lack of understanding of the purpose of the PPE and frustration, maybe even anger that the equipment is more of a bother than a help.

Then I look at the vehicles that these workers have arrived in. In most cases, and this is not precise research, but an observation over years, these vehicles do not identify the roofing company. That tells me that the owners do not take pride in their company, do not want to be identified by showing their name on their vehicles and are avoiding possibly being reported to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) by passersby.

Twice this summer I confronted onsite workers asking why they weren’t wearing their lifelines. In the first instance it was actually the owner/supervisor who told me that they would attach once the shingle packs had been offloaded the lifting device. The building being re-shingled was a three-story commercial establishment with a steep pitch. The workers had their harnesses on and were carrying the heavy shingle packs up the incline while having to step over the lifelines laying on the roof. I walked away and when I passed later in the day, not one of the workers was attached to a lifeline but hey, they had their harnesses on. Yes, I called the MLITSD.

I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that the workers had working at heights training to satisfy Ministry requirements; however, the supervisors did not have the training to know what their personal liability was in the event of a tragic accident.

It’s all about knowing the facts, having responsible owners who value their employees and provide the right training, equipment and supervision. Those are the employers who proudly display their logos and brands on their vehicles. Those are the employers potential workers should be looking for to keep them healthy and safe.

If you’re not comfortable with it, DON’T DO IT!

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the first week of November.

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post JUST WALKING BY appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.