Arco Experts Support Longest Cave Rescue in Welsh History

In November 2021, nearly 300 people united to help rescue a man from the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system near Penwyllt, Powys. The caver had fallen, leaving him trapped underground with severe injuries and at the centre of a rescue mission taking three gruelling days. Arco Professional Safety Service’s Equipment Department Manager, Mike Clayton, and Working at Height Training Department Instructor, Bartek Biela, were part of the rescue team as members of the Midlands Cave Rescue Organisation (MCRO).

MCRO is formed from local cavers and mine explorers who voluntarily assist others who may be lost or injured in the caves and mines of the West Midlands, Shropshire and beyond. Team members can be called day or night and undertake training in all aspects of the technical and medical requirements of underground search and rescue. In the case of the Brecon Beacons rescue, MCRO received a request to assist from the South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team to help bring the injured man through miles of passages to safety. As members of MCRO, Mike and Bartek were part of the response.

The 53-hour rescue demanded physical and mental strength and the right equipment techniques and teamwork. Arco Professional Safety Services sponsors MCRO’s training at its facility in Eccleshall every year, to provide the organisation’s members with realistic, practical training that simulates real-life hazards in a controlled environment. The Eccleshall site, equipped with five classrooms, offers facilities for confined spaces and working from height training. MRCO is reliant on the generosity of donors to operate and, ultimately, work to put skills into practice in a rescue scenario.

All MRCO members must have proven caving experience, whether through work, a club or as a member of the British Caving Association. At Arco Professional Safety Services, Bartek specialises in working at height and bespoke rescue training. These skills were put to immediate use during his first, 10-hour long, underground shift involving assisting with stretcher carrying and elements of rope work.

Bartek explains: “Part of my day-to-day role is teaching others how to safely access and recover casualty in an emergency access situation. Outside of work, my caving hobby started with a passion for exploring environments unlike anything that can be experienced above ground. Having this background and an understanding employer who allows us to go out to volunteer in these kinds of critical missions, means that we have the opportunity to take our work ethos of making the world a safer place to our personal life.”

Mike was tasked with rescue rigging, involving installing ropes and lowering systems to get the stretcher down safely. At Arco Professional Safety Services, Mike looks after the equipment department and advises on working at height and rescue techniques. Mike, comments: “Industrial rope access techniques were born from the sports of caving and climbing. This means a lot of the equipment is the same in industry and rescue, helping me to keep people safer at work and underground.”

Arco Professional Safety Services provide consultancy, training, services and equipment to manage the most complex and high-risk, high-hazard scenarios. Specialising in working at height, confined spaces and respiratory management, expert knowledge and experience mean the team can deliver solutions for situations with the highest risk of serious injury or irreversible damage to health.

For more information about the range of products and services provided by Arco Professional Safety Services, visit www.arcoservices.co.uk.

Photo caption: Image is for representation purposes only (cave rescue training exercise)

How strong is YOUR kit?

We'll start by reviewing a harness which is a typical example..

Harnesses are generally subjected to a 15kN tensile force. These forces are applied and held for at least 3 minutes, to ensure the breaking strength of the product is in excess of the force specified by the standard. This is in addition to dynamic test forces.

Although a harness will be subjected to relatively high test forces, the normal safe working load of a harness will range between 100kg-140kg dependent on the manufacturer to ensure there is an adequate factor of safety.

Some spaces that I see in my day to day job are blatantly confined spaces and need no investigation to ascertain this fact, where as some are very tricky to identify and require a great deal of enquiry. 

There are two questions that you need to ask yourself.

Question one: Is the space an enclosed space?

Question Two: Is there a specified risk within the enclosed space?

The following article will look in to these two questions in greater depth whilst also identifying problems with recognising specified risks and introducing the idea of thinking of Confined Spaces more as Hazardous Spaces.

Question One: Is the space an enclosed space?
As the Approved Code of Practice and Guidance for Safe Work in Confined Spaces explains a confined space is not necessarily:

1. Enclosed on all sides- some may have open tops or sides; I have worked in 9m pits which were open topped but had a gas main, under repair, running through the space, other examples could be deep bunded areas around silos and vats.
2. Be small and/or difficult to work in – such as grain silos and underground water reservoirs
3. Difficult to get in or out of – I once worked in a chamber in Croydon, London which was at least 50m deep and accessed via a normal metal staircase.
4. A place where people do not regularly work- Some Confined Spaces have people working in them regularly such as vessel cleaners in food manufacturing.

Question Two: Is there a specified risk within the enclosed space?

This article will discuss these certain hazards that are referred to as ‘specified risks’ as six specified risks for simplicity, they are:

1. Serious Injury to a person as a result of fire or explosion; and/or
2. The loss of consciousness of any person because of the increase in their body’s temperature; and/or
3. The loss of consciousness or asphyxiation of any person arising from gas, fumes, vapours or the lack of oxygen; and/or
4. The drowning of any person arising from the increase in the level of liquid; and/or
5. The asphyxiation of any person arising from a free flowing solid; and/or
6. The inability of a person to reach a respirable environment due to entrapment by a free flowing solid.

If any of the above specified risks are present in an enclosed space, even if the specified risk is controlled, then the enclosed space is a confined space

Figure 1 Confined Space Tunnel Shaft inspection using rope access techniques © Arco Professional Safety Services
 

Problems with identifying a Confined Space

One of the most common errors that I find with the way in which someone identifies confined spaces is that they simply look inside an enclosed space and ask themselves whether the space has one of the above specified risks. Although this method will identify a good deal of confined spaces it will also overlook other confined spaces.

With greater knowledge and training people are starting to truly understand confined spaces but there is still some distance to go, recently a customer proudly announced to me that they had re-evaluated their confined spaces around the site and had ‘de-classified’ some of their spaces as they didn’t possess a specified risk and as a result these spaces were now no longer controlled access parts of the site. Throughout the day it came up in discussion that although most people who would enter the space would not be exposed to a specified risk there would be some people who don’t regularly enter the space but for whom when they did enter they would be carrying out work such as welding within the enclosed space, using solvents to clean the enclosed space or using compressed air and spades to blow out and dig out a build-up of flour or sugar.

Lesson= don’t forget that a place which is not usually considered to be a confined space could be classified as a confined space because of the nature of a job, if the conditions within or near to the space change. For example, imagine a small metal silo which has a safe level of air and is free from substances, contaminants, free flowing solids and liquids. It could become a confined space if we are carrying out remedial repairs such as:

• welding (this could introduce gases such as high oxygen levels or acetylene which are combustible, would consume some of the oxygen levels and may increase body temperatures)
• spraying solvents or chemicals to clean (this could introduce contaminants which could be toxic, flammable or could affect a respirable atmosphere)
• painting the inside of the silo or applying other chemicals (This could introduce contaminants and could be toxic or flammable)
• Making a dusty atmosphere (could result in the rapid combustion of fine combustible particles)
• Replacing valves (Could result in the inadvertent release of chemicals, gases, liquids or free flowing solids)

The Approved Code of Practice and Guidance 2014 as published by the Health and Safety Executive offers this useful decision-making tool to simplify the identification of Confined Spaces (see Appendix 1).

When a space is identified as a confined space the Confined Space Regulations 1997 apply in full even if there are control measures in place to manage the specified risks.

Should we think of them as hazardous spaces instead?

Hypothetically it would be more suitable to call them hazardous spaces than confined spaces, picture this scene: you show someone the work site and say, “this is the confined space that the work will be taking place within”, their natural reaction is to judge the size and say “ahh…that’s not too small, it is plenty big enough”. The risk with this scenario is that the true, potentially, dangerous nature of the space is overlooked and misunderstood for the duration of the work.

Instead if we were to show someone the ‘hazardous space’ that the work will be taking place within, their question should be “why is it hazardous? what is wrong with the space”. This starts the conversation that is needed to understand the nature of the space, thus keeping the awareness of the hazard in the minds of those involved in the work.

So why are hazardous spaces called confined spaces?

The answer to this is quite simple and lies within the first requirement for identifying confined spaces, “is the space an enclosed space?”. A petrol station has the risk of an explosive atmosphere, the reason it isn’t a confined space is simply because it doesn’t have any sides. Therefore, the specified risk is not confined to the area in which is resides. So, if petrol stations did have walls and you drove through a vehicle size opening, would it be a confined space?

Further Reading

“Under domestic law (the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their employees and others. This responsibility is reinforced by regulations.

• The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 ^[1]
  Apply where the assessment identifies risks of serious injury from work in confined spaces.

These regulations contain the following key duties:

• avoid entry to confined spaces, e.g. by doing the work from the outside;
• if entry to a confined space is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work; and
• put in place adequate emergency arrangements before the work start

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 ^[2]
Require employers and self-employed people to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety. For work in confined spaces this means identifying the hazards present, assessing the risks and determining what precautions to take.” Health and Safety Executive http://www.hse.gov.uk/confinedspace/legislation.htm

• The Confined Space Regulations 1997 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1713/introduction/made
• Safe Work in Confined Spaces – Approved Code of Practice and Guidance- Third Edition 2014 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l101.pdf

Appendices

Appendix 1: HSE Decision-making tool

Work and Rescue Journal: 

Work at Height – Terminology

Work Positioning
Work Restraint
Fall Arrest

How often are these terms mis-used in industry?? Here are some definitions to help..

• Work Positioning – a technique that enables a person to work supported in tension or suspension by personal fall protection equipment in such a way that a fall from a height is prevented or restricted (normally used in conjunction with an independently anchored back-up/fall arrest system)       
                                                         
• Work Restraint – a technique whereby a person is prevented – by means of personal fall protection equipment – from reaching zones where the risk of a fall from a height exists. This system is not designed to arrest a fall.
  
• Fall Arrest – a system whereby the distance and consequences of a fall is minimised by use of an appropriate fall protection system, usually consisting of a full body harness connected to a suitable shock absorbing lanyard/system. This system will not prevent a free fall, only limit distance and impact force.
  

The differences between each system e.g. equipment, anchor strengths, suitability, rescue plan, are significant and should be understood by all involved.

Contact us on 01785 850333 or email info@arcoservices.co.uk regarding Work at Height Training, Consultancy, Equipment and Services

References

• IRATA ICoP

Work and Rescue Journal: What is a Confined Space

First of all, forget all your preconceptions of what a confined space is; forget about the size of the space, forget about how difficult or risky it is to get in to or out of a confined space.

A Confined space is by nature a substantially enclosed space, though not always entirely, that has certain hazards within that space that could cause harm.  So, to summarise, for a space to be a confined space it needs to be:

1. Substantially or totally enclosed; and
2. Poses the reasonably practicable occurrence of a specified risk;

The specified risks are:

1. Serious Injury to a person as a result of fire or explosion; and/or
2. The loss of consciousness of any person because of the increase in their body’s temperature; and/or
3. The loss of consciousness or asphyxiation of any person arising from gas, fumes, vapours or the lack of oxygen; and/or
4. The drowning of any person arising from the increase in the level of liquid; and/or
5. The asphyxiation of any person arising from a free flowing solid; and/or
6. The inability of a person to reach a respirable environment due to entrapment by a free flowing solid.

Further Reading

“Under domestic law (the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their employees and others. This responsibility is reinforced by regulations.”

• The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 ^[1]
  Apply where the assessment identifies risks of serious injury from work in confined spaces.

These regulations contain the following key duties:

• Avoid entry to confined spaces, e.g. by doing the work from the outside;
• If entry to a confined space is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work; and
• Put in place adequate emergency arrangements before the work start

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 ^[2]
“Require employers and self-employed people to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety. For work in confined spaces this means identifying the hazards present, assessing the risks and determining what precautions to take.” Health and Safety Executive http://www.hse.gov.uk/confinedspace/legislation.htm

• The Confined Space Regulations 1997 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1713/introduction/made
• Safe Work in Confined Spaces – Approved Code of Practice and Guidance- Third Edition 2014

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l101.pdf

The answer may seem quite simple, but as falls from height remain one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries in the work place it doesn’t hurt to remind our-selves how ‘Work at Height’ is defined. So where better to look than the HSE.

Work at height means work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. You are working at height if you:

• work above ground/floor level
• could fall from an edge, through an opening or fragile surface or
• could fall from ground level into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground

Work at height does not include a slip or a trip on the level, as a fall from height has to involve a fall from one level to a lower level, nor does it include walking up and down a permanent staircase in a building.

– Hse.gov

If you require advice and guidance regarding the most practical yet safe fall protection system for ‘Working at Height’ in your industry, please contact us

• Consultancy
• Training
• Equipment
• Installations
• Height Safety Support Services

Tel 01785 850333
Email info@arcoservices.co.uk