Articles: Drill Bits: Enclosed Space Entry

10/08/2020 Articles

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Next up in our ‘Drill Bits’ series that helps you get the most out of your drills, we tackle the subject of enclosed space entries.

If a person enters a space with insufficient oxygen to support human life and then collapses, they have around four minutes survival time. In some reported cases, rescue attempts have taken up to 20 minutes before retrieving the casualty, which by that point is a dead body.

Time is of the essence. Could your team safely rescue someone from within a tank or the bottom of a cargo hold in such a short time?

As we did with the fire drill articles earlier in this series, we will first give you the ‘drill bits’ – the different elements of the drill. This is to make sure that the crew are familiar with and confident in their actions during a given drill, before bringing them together for a larger scenario-based drill.

Preparation

Split the crew into their emergency response teams and conduct separate training sessions that focus on their specific roles and responsibilities, each led by a responsible officer.

For example, we’ll consider five teams as follows:

*Bridge Team* *Location: Bridge* *Group leader: Master*	Learning Objective	Exercise
	Demonstrate use of GMDSS	Each person learns how to place a distress call by sending and receiving acknowledgements using the GMDSS equipment. This should be logged in the GMDSS logbook.
	Familiarity with contingency plans	Focus on enclosed space rescue contingency plans; ensure the team knows their location. Check all relevant situations are addressed in the plans and that the contents are accurate.
	Understand record-keeping	Describe how training records should be maintained, remembering that these may prove to be valuable evidence in the event of an incident.
	Understand the use of telemedical services	Describe where to find the details for use of the telemedical service in the SMS. Check the procedure and make sure it is understood.

*Forward Control Team* *Location: on scene* *Group Leader: 2^nd Engineer*	Learning Objective	Exercise
	Demonstrate use of the SCBA board	Familiarity in the use of the SCBA board – know what to record and when to alert the team leader
	Demonstrate proper and correct radio communications	Explain and demonstrate correct radio use. Explain that some areas of the ship may be radio black spots and that you may need to establish a relay radio position to pass your messages to the bridge.
	Demonstrate the use of the tripod (or equipment for lifting the casualty out of a space)	Taking an unconscious casualty out of an enclosed space may require lifting them vertically. Show the crew the equipment available on board to help with this and demonstrate how to use it.

*First Aid Team / Hospital Team* *Location: Hospital* *Group Leader: 3^rd Officer*	Learning Objective	Exercise
	Demonstrate CPR	Take the crew through the basics of CPR. Remind them CPR is hard work and to take turns when tired.
	Demonstrate familiarity of use of the vessel’s oxygen system	Show how to use the oxygen system in the hospital; e.g. location of masks and how to use.
	Preparation of the hospital for a casualty	Remind crew of the possible injuries that could’ve been sustained in an enclosed space rescue situation and what they should be getting ready whilst the casualty is being rescued

*SCBA team 1* *Location: Emergency locker* *Group Leader: Chief Officer*	Learning Objective	Exercise
	Demonstrate checking of breathing apparatus	All SCBA team members to don SCBA equipment, conduct full checks such as bottle contents, whistle check, mask seal test and mask positive pressure check.
	Demonstrate use of the BA trolley set	If your vessel has a BA trolley set, these can be an excellent tool for use in enclosed space rescues as it can increase the period SCBA teams can be safely in the space and can allow better manoeuvrability. Show the crew how to safely rig and use this tool
	Demonstrate use of BA ‘Y-piece’ branch and additional mask	If available on board, demonstrate how to rig an extension face mask on the BA sets for the casualty.

SCBA team 2

Location: a space on deck

Group Leader: 2^nd Officer

Learning Objective

Exercise

Demonstrate using the Neil Robertson stretcher

Often the casualty will be unconscious and will need to be lifted vertically. One of the best tools for this is a Neil Robertson stretcher. Practice using this piece of equipment

Demonstrate using other types of stretchers (e.g. scoop)

If you have other types of stretchers or rescue material, practice the use of these.

De Briefing

Each group should carry out a debrief. Highlight any lessons learned and encourage questions from the team. Don’t forget to highlight what went well and give praise where its due.

For this training it is extremely important to note how to raise the alarm and not to attempt a rescue unaided. Too many seafarers have died trying to “help” a shipmate who has collapsed.

Check that the crew knew their individual duties and who would deputise according to the muster list!

Next time we will look at a full scenario-based rescue from enclosed space drill where we will try out everything learned from the above drill bits.

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