PCARES - Health & Safety

PCARES

Evaluating risk versus gain in health and safety means weighing the potential negative outcomes (injury, illness, or loss) against the anticipated benefits (productivity, efficiency, medical recovery, or operational progress).

Core Concepts

Hazard vs. Risk: A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm (e.g., chemicals, working at heights), while risk is the combination of the likelihood and severity of that harm actually occurring.
The Balancing Act: Health and safety decisions rarely aim for zero risk—which is often impossible—but rather ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practiced) or a balanced cost-benefit analysis where the gain justifies the residual risk.

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT!

The position of Safety Officer whether at a local incident, deployed to a State incident, or part of a Federal Operations is the last position to be appreciated and the first to be pointed at when something goes wrong. I’ve taken the classes, read the books and discovered that these all teach you the responsibilities of the position and give you sources of laws and information but rarely are you told what to really look for while performing in this function. The following information is provided to assist you in performing the function of SAFETY OFFICER. No single list will suffice as a standalone check sheet. The experienced safety officer is aware that hazards come in all forms, and one must constantly have their “radar” in operation to see safety issues before they become problems.

As a Safety Officer one must constantly attempt to “stay ahead” of situations and plan your actions to mitigate hazards before they arise. A Safety Officer must become skilled in interpersonal communication and be heard when dealing with other individual egos, personal assumptions, past experiences and crews that are exhausted, cavalier, or overconfident.

My personal belief is that a safety officer cannot and should not be an expert in everything. Experts with education and experience surround you. Ask Questions. Learn new things. Acquire the assistance and consult those around you in making your decisions. Wherever possible, enlist the help of others and have them understand and initiate safe actions before you need to step in and demand compliance. Remember that you have the ultimate power to stop an unsafe operation of any magnitude. If you do, it may be that your initial input was not understood or heard before the operation began. Do your best to be part of the decision process whenever possible.

The foremost goal is not to stop an operation but to assist by providing input and ideas before operations commence to ensure a successful and SAFE outcome.

Safety Briefing/Message Development Guide:

Written for all incident action plans.
Prepared within time frames given by Incident Commander.
Presented at morning briefings.
Every day, following accidents, and with changes in the plan.
Post on bulletin boards, chow lines.
Keep it interesting, stuff they don’t know.
Not too long, you’ll lose their interest.
Investigate local hazards and pass them on.
Don’t belabor obvious PPE, and the same old recycled messages.
Put some work into it, use color paper, border on page.
Reinforce hydration, rest dependent on weather forecast.
Concentrate on the unusual hazards, and point them out by your Operational Area.
Common Hazards: Transmission lines, open mineshafts, snakes, pot farmers.
Talk about injury trends, recent accidents.

Refusal of Risk:

The ARES® work environment is historically dynamic, and this environment can experience sudden and rapid changes requiring a Refuse Risk process that is efficient, self-sustainable and rudimentary, thus rapidly giving a resource the ability to ensure safety for all personnel.

• Every individual has the right and obligation to report safety problems and contribute ideas regarding their safety

• Supervisors are expected to give these concerns and ideas serious consideration

• Obligation to identify, to the degree possible, safe alternatives for completing that assignment

• The turn down of an assignment must be based on an assessment of risks and the ability of the individual or organization to control those risks

• Individuals may turn down an assignment due to factors that include but not limited to:

There is a violation of safe work practices
Environmental conditions make the work unsafe
They lack the necessary qualifications or experience
Defective equipment is being used

Hotel Safety Checklist:

NOTE: In preparing for major weather activity, The Safety Officer should consider requiring the placement of all personnel on the Leeward side rooms of the approaching weather front and placing all personal gear and equipment in their room.

Hotel Environment:

Provide Floor Plans, Exits and Establish Exterior Rally Points for Accountability. Identify who will conduct personnel accountability with roster
Create accountability system for personnel when they leave or arrive at the hotel (check in-out process not for the rooms).
Provide Team Roster with Room Numbers and Contact Information to All Command Staff.
Conduct a site safety analysis and make known to all personnel.
Provide Safety Guidelines.
Keep doors locked using the deadbolt while in your hotel room.
Identify the nearest fire exit to your room. Count doors to the exit in case you need to exit in the dark.
Avoid using elevators during a fire evacuation.
Secure your valuables. Utilize Hotel facilities if necessary. Keep a close eye on briefcases, purses, electronics and other personal property.
Don't give out your room number to people you don't know. If they want to contact you in your room, have them call the front desk to transfer the call to your room, and then meet in public places like the lobby.
Don't open the door of your room for strangers not clearly affiliated with the Hotel, Served Agency, Assigned Agency/

Work Environment:

Identify emergency exits.
Do not utilize elevators during a fire/storm evacuation.
Be careful on escalators and stairs.
Be watchful of slick or uneven surfaces.
Take rest breaks and drink water often

Urban Environment:

Be observant of your surroundings, including the environment and people around you.
Don't go out alone. Travel in pairs or small groups when possible.
Check on areas to be avoided before venturing out.
Keep a close eye on your personal property.
Cross streets only at designated intersections.
Park in well-lit areas and lock your vehicle

Travel Environment:

Be watchful of construction zones ...slow down and drive defensively.
Allow plenty of time to get where you are going.
Carry local and state highway maps.
Keep vehicle doors locked.
Apply defensive driving techniques. Be observant of other drivers and their behavior.

Remember, the only behavior or vehicle you can control is your own

Refusal of Risk Process:

The individual directly informs their supervisor they are turning down the assignment as given

• The supervisor notifies the Safety Officer immediately upon being informed of the turn down. If there is no Safety Officer, the appropriate supervisor, based on the chain of command, should be notified

• All reporting and/or Turn Downs shall be noted at a minimum on the ICS 214 for record of the action

• If any other resource is asked to perform the assignment, they shall be informed that the assignment was turned down and the reason why it was turned down. These actions do not stop an operation from being carried out

• Based on all the previous considerations and in consultation with the appropriate leadership (SV leadership and/or EC leadership), if the decision is made that the risk outweighs the identified benefits, then the appropriate supervisor based on the chain of command, should be notified

• These actions do not stop an operation from being carried out. This protocol is integral to the effective management of risk as it provides timely identification of hazards to the chain of command, raises risk awareness for both leaders and subordinates, and promotes accountability

Thunder & Lighting Storm Safety:

The mature stage of a storm may be marked on the ground by a sudden reversal of wind direction, a noticeable rise in wind speed, and a shape drop in temperature. Heavy rain, hail and lightning occur only in the mature stage of a thunderstorm.

Situation Awareness: Sound waves move at different rates based on atmospheric conditions. Take the storm precautions below as soon as you hear thunder, not when the storm is upon you. Do not resume work in exposed areas until 30 minutes after storm activity has passed.

Take shelter in a vehicle or building.
Don't drive through a flooded area. If you come upon a flooded road, turn around and go another way. More people drown in their cars than anywhere else
If you must go, for life or unavoidable travel routing, survey or sound area prior to movement.
If your car stalls, abandon it immediately and climb to higher ground. Many deaths have resulted from attempts to move stalled vehicles.
Don't walk through flooded areas. (AVOID WATER) As little as six inches of moving water can knock you off your feet.
Stay away from downed power lines and electrical wires. Electrocution is another major source of deaths in floods. Electric current passes easily through water

During a thunderstorm or Lightning Storm:

Do not use radios or telephones.
Put down all tools. Do not carry objects “up” such as an antennas. long tools, ladders.
If outdoors, find a low spot away from tall trees, wire fences, utility lines, and other elevated conductive objects.
Avoid grouping together. Maintain at least 15 feet between each person.
Maintain a distance of at least twice the height of nearby trees, towers, poles, etc..
Do not handle flammable materials in open containers.
Stay in your vehicle. Take shelter in a vehicle, if possible.
Turn off machinery, electric motors, computers, etc..
Take shelter in a building if possible. Do not seek shelter under trees.
When there is no shelter, avoid high objects such as lone trees, extension ladders, or radio antennae.
In an open area, the best protection is to crouch in the open, feet together maintaining the distance of twice the height of the object away. DO NOT LIE ON THE GROUND. Personnel may sit on a pack.
Keep away from wire fences, telephone lines, and electrical conductive elevated objects.
Avoid high places, wide-open spaces and exposed shelters.
Advise crew that if they feel an electrical charge - - if their hair stands on end or their skin, tingles - - lightning may be about to strike them. They must drop to the ground immediately.
Remember that down draft and strong winds are associated with these storms. They can blow wildfires out of containment, changes the fire’s direction and/or cause a significant change in the wildfire’s intensity and behavior Thunderstorms have been a direct factor in the death and serious injury to many rescue personnel. (Granite Mountain Hotshots, 19 firefighters in Yarnell, Arizona, 2013)

Lightning Issues:

PLAN in advance your evacuation and safety measures. When you first see lightning or hear thunder, activate your emergency plan. Now is the time to go to a building or a vehicle. Lightning often precedes rain, so don't wait for the rain to begin before suspending activities.

IF OUTDOORS:

If necessary SUSPEND ACTIVITIES for 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder.

Avoid water, High ground and Open Spaces.
Avoid all metal objects including electric wires, fences, machinery, motors, power tools, etc.
Unsafe places include underneath canopies, small picnic or rain shelters, or near trees.
Where possible, find shelter in a substantial building or in a fully enclosed metal vehicle such as a car, truck or a van with the windows completely shut.
If lightning is striking nearby when you are outside, you should - Crouch down. Put feet together. Place hands over ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.
Avoid proximity (minimum of 15 ft.) to other people, water and all metal objects: towers, wires and fences

IF INDOORS:

Avoid water.
Stay away from doors and windows.
Do not use the telephone.
Take off head sets.
Turn off, unplug, and stay away from appliances, computers, power tools, & TV sets.
Lightning may strike exterior electric and phone lines, inducing shocks to inside equipment

FCC Exposure Rules:

Updated Radio Frequency Exposure Rules Become Effective on May 3, 2023

On May 3, 2021, new FCC rules governing RF exposure went into effect. A 2-year transition period was implemented to allow existing stations to make any necessary changes. On May 3, 2023, the transition period ends, and all transmitters operating in the US are expected to comply with the exposure rules.

The ARRL® provides an RF Exposure Calculator at

RF EXPSOURE CALCULATOR

The calculator requires values to be entered for the power transmitted minus the feed-line loss, the antenna gain, the type of modulation used, the approximate transmit and receive times, and the frequency of operation. There is a checkbox to enable calculations with ground effects, and in the interest of conservation this should be selected. From these values, the calculator generates the minimum distance from any part of the antenna that a person in the occupational and general populations may be located.

This evaluation must be repeated for every frequency band, antenna, and the maximum power level that's used to obtain a complete environmental analysis of a station.

How to turn off Utilities:

To shut off gas, locate the meter shut-off valve (usually near the meter, 6-8 inches above the ground) and turn it perpendicular to the pipe with a wrench. To shut off electricity, locate the breaker box and flip the main breaker to the "off" position, then flip individual breakers to "off".

Turning Off Gas:

Locate the Meter: Find your natural gas meter, usually at the front or side of your home.
Find the Shut-Off Valve: Look for the shut-off valve on the meter set assembly, typically near the meter.
Use a Wrench: Use a wrench to turn the valve a quarter turn, so it's perpendicular to the pipe.
Safety First: If you smell gas, evacuate immediately and call emergency services.

Turning Off Electricity:

1. Locate the Breaker Box: Find the electrical panel (often in the basement or utility room).
2. Flip the Main Breaker: Flip the main breaker (usually the largest or double switch) to the "off" position.
3. Flip Individual Breakers: Flip each individual breaker to the "off" position.

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