Skip to main content

Mock training teams up rescue, construction personnel

Date Posted: April 13 2007

ANN ARBOR - A construction worker goes in the hole. How do you apply first aid and get him out quickly and safely?

That was the first of three joint rescue training scenarios conducted on March 23 at the Ross School of Business project on the University of Michigan campus. The others were simulating the treatment of a worker in medical distress on a high level of a steel building under construction, as well as the rescue of a construction worker suspended by a fall protection system.

The simulated rescue operations were conducted with the cooperation of the Ross School of Business project's general contractor, Gilbane/Clark, Bristol Steel and Conveyor Corp., Iron Workers Local 25, Operating Engineers Local 324, and the Ann Arbor Fire Department Technical Rescue Team. The simulations were observed by Hardhats on the job, and videotaped to provide training lessons for future rescues.

Ann Arbor Fire Department Battalion Chief Kevin Cook said the department has 23 firefighters trained for emergency response rescue operations, but this is the first time they have been given access to a live construction site and the opportunity to work on the job with construction workers.

"To get a site like this to do a training operation is obviously difficult," Cook said. "It's a huge asset to be able to work together with the people who would be helping us to make a rescue."

The first of the three simulated rescues had iron worker Ed Bulzan falling off the steel on the project and lying on a concrete basement floor with a probable broken leg. Bristol Steel site safety coordinator Steve Gulick and a team of other iron workers provided first aid to their stricken comrade while waiting for the rescue team to arrive.

The first priorities was doing the "Three C's": check the scene to make sure it's safe to approach, call 911, and then care for the patient. And, the most important aspect of caring for the patient was the "ABCs" - assuring the patient's airway, breathing and circulation - and making sure he or she is comfortable. When the rescue team arrived, they cautioned construction workers that improperly moving a fall victim could worsen his injuries.

"You know he has a broken leg, but you don't know if there's a fracture farther up, in his back," said firefighter Andy Box. After positioning a hard backboard under patient Bulzan, he was moved into a "stokes litter" stretcher. Rigging the patient was a little more involved than hooking up a section of steel. The basket was attached to the line of a crane operated by Chris Casto of Operating Engineers Local 324 and lifted to ground level near an ambulance.

"You never know what you're going to be called upon to do when you're out on a construction job and you're faced with an injured co-worker," Gulick said. "But since we know these job sites better than anybody, we need to be able to know how to coordinate our efforts with local rescue crews to get our injured people evacuated safely."

Iron Workers Local 25 Business Manager Jim Hamric said "our people do hazardous work, and it's a great idea to have them trained to help each other and help rescue teams in case of an accident."

In the aftermath of 9-11, when construction workers took the lead in the attempt to recover victims from World Trade Center disaster, Cook said there have been a limited but growing number of fire department personnel in Southeast Michigan, the Lansing area and in Grand Rapids that have had teams trained in technical rescue operations.

Taking the lead in such training is the Operating Engineers Local 324 Education Center in Howell. In September 2005 the training center and the Michigan Urban Search and Rescue (MUSAR) Training Foundation unveiled a program to provide space for response teams across Michigan to learn to perform urban rescue operations in fallen buildings, trench collapses or similar events.

"We want first responders in the state to be able to do the best job possible," said Local 324 Business Manager and General Vice President John Hamilton.

CONSTRUCTION workers and the Ann Arbor Fire Department Technical Rescue Team team up to aid and lift "stricken" iron worker Ed Bulzan.