813 Construction Worksite Safety

Rescue and Emergency Services

Effective emergency planning is vital to ensure that any entrant who becomes sick or is injured in a permit space can be evacuated quickly and safely. The entry employer’s permit space program must therefore include procedures for entrants to be rescued in a timely manner by qualified personnel.

Role of the attendant: Whenever an entrant is in a permit space, there must be an attendant outside the space who must maintain communication with all entrants and keep track of their condition. If one or more entrants suffers an injury or illness and is unable to exit the space without help, the attendant must initiate a rescue.

Non-Entry Rescue

Since most confined space rescue fatalities are rescuers, non-entry rescue is preferable. The employer’s rescue procedures must provide for non-entry rescue using retrieval equipment unless the retrieval equipment would increase the overall risk of entry or would not contribute to the rescue of the entrant. The attendant must be prepared to perform non-entry rescues when required by the employer’s rescue procedures.

• Each entrant must wear a chest or full body harness, with a retrieval line attached at the D-ring in the center of the back or another point which positions the entrant so that the victim is small enough to be pulled out of the space.
• The other end of the retrieval line must be attached to a mechanical device or a fixed point outside the permit space.
• A mechanical device must be available to retrieve someone from vertical type permit spaces more than five feet deep.
• Wristlets or anklets may be used instead of a chest or full body harness only if the employer can demonstrate that use of a chest or full body harness if infeasible or would create a greater hazard and that the use of wristlets or anklets is the safest and most effective alternative.

When non-entry rescue is selected, the entry employer must also confirm, before entry begins, that emergency assistance would be available if the non-entry rescue fails.

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