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13 September 2024
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Machinery extrication by Colin Deiner (FRI Vol 2 no 9)
It would be a good idea to visit various industrial sights to identify the types of entrapment risks you may face
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These incidents will test your rescue capability and ingenuity
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Disassembly requires the removal of the obstructing components around the trapped body parts and is the most common approach
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Consider that your rescue operation might take place in a hazardous environment
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol2no9_final.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Machinery extrication written by Colin Deiner, chief director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government (FRI Vol 2 no 9). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Machinery extrication
By Colin Deiner, Chief Director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government
Many fire and rescue services responders have at some point in their careers had to respond to ‘person trapped by machinery’ incidents. Arms or legs caught in belt driven conveyors, children trapped in washing machines or tumble dryers, fingers trapped in various machines and sharp objects penetrating and impaling victims are just some of the challenges that may confront you over the course of your career. The one thing that you need to appreciate from the get-go is that very few of these incidents are the same. The procedural approach followed by a vehicle extrication plan will not necessarily work here. In many cases you will also find that your traditional rescue equipment might not be the ideal tool of choice and you may have to resort to disassembling the machinery rather than cutting or breaking it.
Preplanning
Planning for responses to machinery extrication callouts are not easy due to the fact that your service will generally not respond to many such incidents. These are, however, the incidents that will test your rescue capability and ingenuity and it all starts at the station and how you plan your rescue team’s configuration. Your rescue team’s expertise in heavy lifting, cutting operations, machine component disassembly, heavy load stabilisation and securing energised equipment will all need to be addressed if you are going to be effective.
Due to the wide range of incidents your service could respond to and the rarity of such incidents, it would be difficult to plan for specific risks in your response area. It would, however, be a good idea to visit various industrial sights to identify the types of entrapment risks you may face and get your people thinking of the ways they can deal with a specific type of entrapment.
There will, however, always be certain things that you will have to do on any incident and the development of a standard operating procedure (SOP) dealing with issues such as scene safety, electricity isolation, lock-out/tag-out of machinery and patient care, will be important.
Your equipment needs will have to be thought through carefully. As mentioned earlier, you will need to compliment your standard vehicle extraction suite with an assortment of tools not normally found on most rescue trucks. A good basic equipment suite should include the following:
• Battery operated reciprocating saws, small metal cutting circular saws, impact drills
• Wood and steel wedges
• Lock-out/tag-out equipment.
• Rigging equipment (chains, slings, d-rings, carabiners etc)
• Soap solution
• Pry bars
• Hydraulic rescue tools
• Air chisels
• High-pressure lifting bags
• Ratchet/socket sets
• A good standard toolbox containing an assortment of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and hammers
Also consider that your rescue operation might take place in a hazardous environment. Some years ago, I responded as part of a rescue crew to remove a person who had been overcome by heat in an industrial bread baking oven. This entailed entering an environment at an extremely high temperature. The person might have been overcome by a hazardous material that would require the rescue team to work in breathing apparatus or chemically protective clothing.
First arriving units
The best way to initially approach an extrication in an industrial setting, is to follow the same steps that you would for a vehicle extrication. A five-man rescue squad should divide up into three components: incident commander (one person), medical team (two people) and extrication team (two people). One member of the extrication team should do a quick outer circle survey and identify any prevailing hazards such as moving machinery, spilled liquids and trip hazards. The other member should focus his/her attention toward the trapped victim and assess the level of entrapment, stabilisation challenges and possible entry and exit routes. The senior medical team member should try to establish contact with the patient and try to ascertain the medical condition of the patient, possible injuries and level of consciousness. Also remember that no one should touch the victim until it is confirmed that it is safe to do so. Once the initial survey is complete a representative of each group should report back to the incident commander who will then decide on his/her incident action plan.
It may be necessary at this point to call in the services of an onsite technician to isolate any energised machinery or isolate any flowing or leaking liquid processes. Remember that when you do ask such a person to work near the victim, that it could cause unnecessary trauma to that person if they are exposed to the victim’s injuries or know the victim.
The kind of expertise you might need would be equipment operators, maintenance personnel or even the equipment manufacturer. If you are unsure as to how to approach a specific type of machinery or equipment, rather be safe and call in the services of one of these experts.
Although the primary power source, in most cases, will be electrical, you could also encounter hydraulic sources such as fluids under pressure, pneumatic sources such as compressed air, stored energy in springs or potential energy from suspended parts. Suffice to say that all these sources must be shut down and isolated before any rescue work can be started. Your confined space rescue lock-out/tag-out procedures can be employed here. Once all energy sources have been isolated make sure that they remain so until the mission is completed.
It could be possible that the machinery component or equipment that was involved in the accident could have become unstable during the accident and that it might be necessary for it to be stabilised. Ensure that you have sufficient cribbing and shoring equipment for this task. Due to the height and disposition of the load it might be necessary for rigging from above or around the load. Again, here a standard rescue unit might not have the kind of equipment needed for this task and if this is the case, make sure beforehand that contingencies are in place for such a situation.
After completion of the isolation and stabilisation of the load, it is advisable to do a re-evaluation of the scene. It might, at this point, be possible to release the victim or you might discover a further problem that did not present at your initial survey.
The rescue can only be started once a zero mechanical state is achieved. This means that no machinery is running, the load is stabilised and all energy to the site is isolated.
The rescue
The incident commander must consider four critical factors before commencing with the extrication:
1. Time: This will be largely dictated by the condition of the patient and the complexity of the extrication required. Other factors such as daylight, if relevant, must also be considered.
2. Victim: What is the condition of the victim and to what extent can he/she be medically stabilised while trapped.
3. Rescuer: Are the rescuers sufficient in numbers and ability to extricate the victim within the given time.
4. Machinery: Is it possible to disassemble the machinery to the point where the victim can be removed.
Once the incident commander is satisfied that the above challenges can be addressed he/she needs to consider one of the following methods of extrication:
1. Manipulation
2. Disassembly
3. Breaking and breeching
Manipulation is generally the simplest and quickest way of releasing the victim and can be achieved by manipulating the trapped body part around a machine component until it is released. It could also involve the movement of the component out of the way of the body part. Manipulation is obviously limited to the degree of entrapment. A handy tip here is to have a bottle of lubricant available that can be applied between the trapped body part and the machine, which could create a slippery surface and ease the movement required.
Disassembly requires the removal of the obstructing components around the trapped body parts and is the most common approach. Special equipment and the presence of an expert on the particular machinery may be required for this task.
In some very rare cases it has not been possible to remove the victim from the entrapment and it has become necessary to consider other options. One such an option is to examine the possibility of removing only the component of machinery in which the person is trapped and move the victim to hospital still attached to this smaller component. It must be clear that this component will be able to be transported and that the receiving medical facility will be comfortable to conduct an operation of this complexity.
Amputation of a trapped limb will be the absolute last resort and will almost never be advisable. The risk of infection in an industrial space will always be present and the challenge of preparing the site for such an operation will be almost impossible.
Breaking and breeching means the physical damaging of the machinery to remove the victim. This should be seen as a last resort as it will require possible cutting and metal relocation under force and close to the victim. All precautions employed during a vehicle extrication evolution such as placing hard protection between the rescue tool and victim should be exercised.
Make sure that you have enough high-pressure airbags that can be placed in confined spaces and at the same time provide sufficient force to extricate the victim. (The use of high-pressure airbags is comprehensively dealt with in Volume 2, No 7 of Fire and Rescue International).
Whichever method of breaking and breeching is decided on, it should be done with great precision and any relocation of loads should be just enough to remove the entrapped limb from beneath it.
Remember that any major relocation of metal on one side on a load could cause it to become unstable somewhere else. Stabilisation should be an ongoing task and ensure that you are continuously monitoring the load for any problems that may arise.
While the victim is being removed, a medical area should be set up in a safe area in close proximity to the entrapment site. All stabilisation and patient packaging equipment should be prepared and necessary arrangements for rapid extrication put in place.
Incident termination
Before your rescue team can start handing out high-fives for another successful rescue, you need to make sure that the scene has returned to normal. All equipment must be retrieved safely. You might be requested by an accident inspector to leave certain equipment in place to enable them to conduct their investigation of the accident. Equipment that cannot be safely removed might have to be left in its place until such time as it can be removed by some other means.
Only once all equipment has been removed and the site has been restored to normality can the incident be declared over and the site be handed over to the person with the designated authority. This might be an accident investigator, the site foreman or even the police.
Because you won’t be responding to ‘person trapped by machinery’ incidents often, it is good practice to have a technical debrief immediately after termination of the incident. This way all responders can have a first-hand idea of the various tasks and how they were carried out.
In closing
Machinery extrications will in most cases only involve one victim. This comes as a relief when you realise that it might also be among the most taxing incidents that you may ever have to handle. It’s not easy to train for them because of the varying types of incidents you may encounter. This should not stop us from continuously looking for new equipment and methods to address these challenges.
Remember: It’s not the winning, it’s the taking apart.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Machinery extrication written by Colin Deiner, chief director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government (FRI Vol 2 no 9). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Machinery extrication
By Colin Deiner, Chief Director, Disaster management and Fire Brigade Services, Western Cape Government
Many fire and rescue services responders have at some point in their careers had to respond to ‘person trapped by machinery’ incidents. Arms or legs caught in belt driven conveyors, children trapped in washing machines or tumble dryers, fingers trapped in various machines and sharp objects penetrating and impaling victims are just some of the challenges that may confront you over the course of your career. The one thing that you need to appreciate from the get-go is that very few of these incidents are the same. The procedural approach followed by a vehicle extrication plan will not necessarily work here. In many cases you will also find that your traditional rescue equipment might not be the ideal tool of choice and you may have to resort to disassembling the machinery rather than cutting or breaking it.
Preplanning
Planning for responses to machinery extrication callouts are not easy due to the fact that your service will generally not respond to many such incidents. These are, however, the incidents that will test your rescue capability and ingenuity and it all starts at the station and how you plan your rescue team’s configuration. Your rescue team’s expertise in heavy lifting, cutting operations, machine component disassembly, heavy load stabilisation and securing energised equipment will all need to be addressed if you are going to be effective.
Due to the wide range of incidents your service could respond to and the rarity of such incidents, it would be difficult to plan for specific risks in your response area. It would, however, be a good idea to visit various industrial sights to identify the types of entrapment risks you may face and get your people thinking of the ways they can deal with a specific type of entrapment.
There will, however, always be certain things that you will have to do on any incident and the development of a standard operating procedure (SOP) dealing with issues such as scene safety, electricity isolation, lock-out/tag-out of machinery and patient care, will be important.
Your equipment needs will have to be thought through carefully. As mentioned earlier, you will need to compliment your standard vehicle extraction suite with an assortment of tools not normally found on most rescue trucks. A good basic equipment suite should include the following:
• Battery operated reciprocating saws, small metal cutting circular saws, impact drills
• Wood and steel wedges
• Lock-out/tag-out equipment.
• Rigging equipment (chains, slings, d-rings, carabiners etc)
• Soap solution
• Pry bars
• Hydraulic rescue tools
• Air chisels
• High-pressure lifting bags
• Ratchet/socket sets
• A good standard toolbox containing an assortment of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and hammers
Also consider that your rescue operation might take place in a hazardous environment. Some years ago, I responded as part of a rescue crew to remove a person who had been overcome by heat in an industrial bread baking oven. This entailed entering an environment at an extremely high temperature. The person might have been overcome by a hazardous material that would require the rescue team to work in breathing apparatus or chemically protective clothing.
First arriving units
The best way to initially approach an extrication in an industrial setting, is to follow the same steps that you would for a vehicle extrication. A five-man rescue squad should divide up into three components: incident commander (one person), medical team (two people) and extrication team (two people). One member of the extrication team should do a quick outer circle survey and identify any prevailing hazards such as moving machinery, spilled liquids and trip hazards. The other member should focus his/her attention toward the trapped victim and assess the level of entrapment, stabilisation challenges and possible entry and exit routes. The senior medical team member should try to establish contact with the patient and try to ascertain the medical condition of the patient, possible injuries and level of consciousness. Also remember that no one should touch the victim until it is confirmed that it is safe to do so. Once the initial survey is complete a representative of each group should report back to the incident commander who will then decide on his/her incident action plan.
It may be necessary at this point to call in the services of an onsite technician to isolate any energised machinery or isolate any flowing or leaking liquid processes. Remember that when you do ask such a person to work near the victim, that it could cause unnecessary trauma to that person if they are exposed to the victim’s injuries or know the victim.
The kind of expertise you might need would be equipment operators, maintenance personnel or even the equipment manufacturer. If you are unsure as to how to approach a specific type of machinery or equipment, rather be safe and call in the services of one of these experts.
Although the primary power source, in most cases, will be electrical, you could also encounter hydraulic sources such as fluids under pressure, pneumatic sources such as compressed air, stored energy in springs or potential energy from suspended parts. Suffice to say that all these sources must be shut down and isolated before any rescue work can be started. Your confined space rescue lock-out/tag-out procedures can be employed here. Once all energy sources have been isolated make sure that they remain so until the mission is completed.
It could be possible that the machinery component or equipment that was involved in the accident could have become unstable during the accident and that it might be necessary for it to be stabilised. Ensure that you have sufficient cribbing and shoring equipment for this task. Due to the height and disposition of the load it might be necessary for rigging from above or around the load. Again, here a standard rescue unit might not have the kind of equipment needed for this task and if this is the case, make sure beforehand that contingencies are in place for such a situation.
After completion of the isolation and stabilisation of the load, it is advisable to do a re-evaluation of the scene. It might, at this point, be possible to release the victim or you might discover a further problem that did not present at your initial survey.
The rescue can only be started once a zero mechanical state is achieved. This means that no machinery is running, the load is stabilised and all energy to the site is isolated.
The rescue
The incident commander must consider four critical factors before commencing with the extrication:
1. Time: This will be largely dictated by the condition of the patient and the complexity of the extrication required. Other factors such as daylight, if relevant, must also be considered.
2. Victim: What is the condition of the victim and to what extent can he/she be medically stabilised while trapped.
3. Rescuer: Are the rescuers sufficient in numbers and ability to extricate the victim within the given time.
4. Machinery: Is it possible to disassemble the machinery to the point where the victim can be removed.
Once the incident commander is satisfied that the above challenges can be addressed he/she needs to consider one of the following methods of extrication:
1. Manipulation
2. Disassembly
3. Breaking and breeching
Manipulation is generally the simplest and quickest way of releasing the victim and can be achieved by manipulating the trapped body part around a machine component until it is released. It could also involve the movement of the component out of the way of the body part. Manipulation is obviously limited to the degree of entrapment. A handy tip here is to have a bottle of lubricant available that can be applied between the trapped body part and the machine, which could create a slippery surface and ease the movement required.
Disassembly requires the removal of the obstructing components around the trapped body parts and is the most common approach. Special equipment and the presence of an expert on the particular machinery may be required for this task.
In some very rare cases it has not been possible to remove the victim from the entrapment and it has become necessary to consider other options. One such an option is to examine the possibility of removing only the component of machinery in which the person is trapped and move the victim to hospital still attached to this smaller component. It must be clear that this component will be able to be transported and that the receiving medical facility will be comfortable to conduct an operation of this complexity.
Amputation of a trapped limb will be the absolute last resort and will almost never be advisable. The risk of infection in an industrial space will always be present and the challenge of preparing the site for such an operation will be almost impossible.
Breaking and breeching means the physical damaging of the machinery to remove the victim. This should be seen as a last resort as it will require possible cutting and metal relocation under force and close to the victim. All precautions employed during a vehicle extrication evolution such as placing hard protection between the rescue tool and victim should be exercised.
Make sure that you have enough high-pressure airbags that can be placed in confined spaces and at the same time provide sufficient force to extricate the victim. (The use of high-pressure airbags is comprehensively dealt with in Volume 2, No 7 of Fire and Rescue International).
Whichever method of breaking and breeching is decided on, it should be done with great precision and any relocation of loads should be just enough to remove the entrapped limb from beneath it.
Remember that any major relocation of metal on one side on a load could cause it to become unstable somewhere else. Stabilisation should be an ongoing task and ensure that you are continuously monitoring the load for any problems that may arise.
While the victim is being removed, a medical area should be set up in a safe area in close proximity to the entrapment site. All stabilisation and patient packaging equipment should be prepared and necessary arrangements for rapid extrication put in place.
Incident termination
Before your rescue team can start handing out high-fives for another successful rescue, you need to make sure that the scene has returned to normal. All equipment must be retrieved safely. You might be requested by an accident inspector to leave certain equipment in place to enable them to conduct their investigation of the accident. Equipment that cannot be safely removed might have to be left in its place until such time as it can be removed by some other means.
Only once all equipment has been removed and the site has been restored to normality can the incident be declared over and the site be handed over to the person with the designated authority. This might be an accident investigator, the site foreman or even the police.
Because you won’t be responding to ‘person trapped by machinery’ incidents often, it is good practice to have a technical debrief immediately after termination of the incident. This way all responders can have a first-hand idea of the various tasks and how they were carried out.
In closing
Machinery extrications will in most cases only involve one victim. This comes as a relief when you realise that it might also be among the most taxing incidents that you may ever have to handle. It’s not easy to train for them because of the varying types of incidents you may encounter. This should not stop us from continuously looking for new equipment and methods to address these challenges.
Remember: It’s not the winning, it’s the taking apart.