Page 28 - Best of STIL 2018 English

Thomas Düerkop (left) and Steffen Müller-Bell walk to the fire truck which they plan to use for their demonstration
ilarity to conventional mountain rescue services. In order to demonstrate how to properly abseil, he drives a fire truck with an extending arm onto the forecourt of the fire department – all firefighters gain a HGV driver’s license during their training. The telescopic arm lifts Steffen Müller-Bell more than 30 meters into the air, where he ropes up with a few skillful knots. He then lowers himself back- wards until the rope is taught and he’s hanging in the air high above the forecourt – a situation that makes it crystal clear what he means by “trusting your equipment”.
High angle rescuers have to notch up 72 hours of deployment time every year. Their typical areas of activity are cell phone masts, construction cranes, scaffolding or emergencies in arboriculture and similar activities. The high angle rescuers’ routine tasks in the iron and steel works include being present during the inspection of the approximately 100-meter blast furnace gas meter. In emergen- cies, the colleagues who scale the structure for the inspection have to be saved.
The highest point in the steel works is the 150-meter 70 MW block of the power plant. Thankfully, Steffen Müller-Bell has only ever had to climb the structure in training, but he does recall an emergency where he was called on to save a crane operator. “The colleague suffered a heart attack up there, but luckily he survived,” he re- members. The team also had to save a person who fell into a decanting pit and had to be transported out in a basket stretcher. High angle rescuers obvi- ously experience both highs and lows in their job. The differences are not particularly pronounced,
as high-level deployments require the rescuers to ascend and then abseil down, while deployments below ground work the other way around. Saved persons are either abseiled down or winched up.
28 TRAINING
Luckily, spectacular deployments are an abso- lute exception for the plant fire department. The rescue service is called out most often – currently some 330 times a year. That sounds like a lot, but this figure represents a positive trend: Rescue deployments have been declining for years, and this is something Thomas Düerkop puts down
to the occupational safety campaign by Salzgitter Flachstahl, among other things. The seriousness of accidents has also decreased during this time.
This allows the plant fire department to focus on other important and preventative tasks. They monitor safety at the blast furnaces and during construction, as well as overseeing fire protection systems and training employees regarding fire protection regulations and measures. In addition, these professionals provide first aid courses for more than 1,000 employees every year.
Steffen Müller-Bell inspects the new plant fire department boat which he also has to be able to pilot. Among other assignments, the boat is intended to transport industrial divers to deployments in the branch canal
Photos: Gunnar Garms