This morning on the local news, one of the new “morning girls” was out talking to Austin Energy about their need for more linemen and what the job entails. She was all dressed up for the part and in a bucket truck, because that’s the way “morning girls” give their reports. Poles and tower climbing (and controlled descents) are interesting subjects to me, having been around people involved in these things forever, so I ran into the living room to watch.
As the guy was explaining what they do, another guy was rescuing a dummy from a pole. I couldn’t wait to see how Austin Energy did it, because I know how Lin and his guys would do a rescue like that. Let’s just say if I ever find myself somewhere really precarious and need to be rescued with the use of climbers and ropes, please –PLEASE– call my husband and let his guys do it! OMG. I do not have the words. You just have to watch the video yourself.
It starts with the typing a rope around the underarms and chest of the dummy for lowering to the ground. Terribly easy for things to go wrong and someone to die that way. Crushed chest is not a nice way to go, and that’s only one of the problems lowering someone tied in that way can experience. But then … just … OMG … if the dummy wasn’t dead before it was rescued, I suspect it was most definitely dead as it mostly plummeted to the ground. I’m not kidding.
I wish I could explain how Lin and his guys would bring someone down off a tower (or pole), but though I now basically how it’s done, he’d explain it so much better. I should make him write a post about it. I can say it’s very controlled, very tied off, and very safe for everyone involved. Next time they have some guys going through the certification test, I should go watch and take photos. When they are pretending to rescue an unconscious someone from a tower, they don’t use a dummy. It’s actually one of the other guys. As you can imagine, that makes it serious business.†
I was looking for the link to the video, so I could send it to Lin, as I know he will laugh as hard at it as I did (until his inner safety manager wakes up and starts ranting about the insanity of these guy’s rescue methods). It made me laugh my butt off again when I found it, so I just had to share it here too. Probably won’t be funny to many other people, but maybe you’ll see the humor (and horror – I have an inner safety manager too).
Seriously, if I am ever dangling from an overpass, draped over the top of a flag pole, or in some other way suspended off the earth and need rescuing, please for the love of all that is good and right, don’t let the cops try to rescue me and don’t let anyone from Austin Energy anywhere near me. I really, really want Lin and the guys to pull me down. My chances of surviving my rescue would be SO much higher. LOL!
And by the way, News 8 has still not found a proper replacement (in my eyes) for Amy Hadley. I still miss waking up to see what Amy was getting into early every morning.
Footnotes- † And talk about team building and learning to have trust and confidence in the abilities of your coworkers! “Saving” each other from 100 foot up would certainly do that! Kind of makes falling backwards into someone’s arms at a business conference seem a little wimpy doesn’t it? LOL! [↩]