Assisting an unresponsive or unconscious coworker atop a utility pole is a rare occurrence, but potentially life-saving pole-top rescue skills are vital in the electrical industry.
That’s why lineworkers from Unitil recently participated in a comprehensive pole-top rescue training exercise to gain the tools and confidence to act decisively in an emergency.
“You hope to never have to use this in the field, but at least our workers will be proficient and know the proper emergency steps they must take if there was ever an event where they had to perform a pole-top rescue,” said Shawnn Vaillant, who serves as Manager of Electric Operations at Unitil’s Concord, N.H., facility.
Unitil, a provider of electricity and natural gas to customers in New England, provides pole-top rescue simulation drills annually as part of its robust safety strategy, but this year the company offered more in-depth training with assistance from Powerline Training, a company that provides training and consulting services for the utility industry with hands-on experiences.
The training was held at Unitil’s electrical operations facilities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and included pole top-rescue with a focus on lineworkers safely climbing the pole and lowering a rescue dummy simulating a fellow worker who was injured or experiencing some other type of emergency. The training simulated real-life emergency scenarios with lineworkers demonstrating strength, technique, speed, and safety awareness under pressure.
Additional classroom and hands-on educational opportunities included basic electrical theory, transformer training and wiring schematics.
“Electrical linework is one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S., which is why safety and training exercises like this are a priority for Unitil,” said Alec O’Meara, External Affairs Director at Unitil. “It’s important that our line crews in the field train for the worst so they can deliver the best possible outcome in a medical emergency. A pole-top rescue that’s skillfully performed is one of the best examples of teamwork, training, and trust in action. We hope that the additional classroom and hands-on sessions offered alongside this year’s rescue drill will serve as a stepping stone and allow us to expand training opportunities in the future.”
Powerline Training Vice President Nathan Boutwell said pole-top rescue isn’t just a compliance drill, but a life-saving skill that every lineworker needs to be ready to perform.
“When something goes wrong, crews don’t get a second chance to figure it out. That’s why we designed this training to be as close to real as possible: climbing, rigging, and lowering an injured coworker while working against the clock,” he said. “Our approach is simple: give Unitil’s lineworkers the chance to practice under pressure so that when an emergency happens in the field, the steps are second nature. We put the emphasis on doing the work safely, with the same gear and conditions they’d face in the real world. By the end, every participant knows they can execute a rescue, because they’ve done it.”
