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Safety for Disaster City

Safety

What Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is needed to participate in this event?

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a must for working within any scenario at the site. People in street clothes or without helmets/gloves/etc as shown below are limited to paved roads only. If you are working in/near a scenario, you must wear ALL the equipment shown below. Compliance with these personal protective equipment rules are mandatory - it is standard practice for US&R environments.

  • Helmet (we have some to borrow. Hard hats are okay.)
  • Ear protection (We'll supply these)
  • Eye protection (sunglasses are okay)
  • Long sleeve shirt
  • Work gloves
  • Long pants (army surplus stores sell cargo/emt pants)
  • Boots (preferably steel toe)
  • Additional protective padding is optional (knees, elbows)

On Site Safety Comes First

Be cautious, use common sense, and watch out for others!

Safety of all personnel participating in this event is our first concern. The fact that we have robotics personnel on site, generally unaccustomed to working within hazardous scenarios, is particularly problematic. First, all appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) must be worn at all times while on site (see associated page on PPE) -- which means wear all of it when you are working in/near a scenario. People in street clothes or without helmets, gloves, etc., are limited to paved roads only. Compliance with these personal protective equipment rules are mandatory. 

  • The rubble piles present the most risk to novices. If you are operating a robot on a rubble pile or other difficult scenario and it needs to be extracted, please ask your associated emergency responder to retrieve it (hopefully, he/she was the one driving when it got stuck anyway!).
  • Always maintain awareness of others working within your scenario and communicate your intentions *before* doing whatever you have in mind.
  • Understand that robots can do unpredictable things; the bigger/heavier the robot the more space you should allow it. And don't stick your fingers into places it might not like. Always familiarize yourself with the emergency stop procedures first... and last.... before interacting with or operating robots. Some implementations are more predictable than others, and it has nothing to do with shininess!
  • If you see anything you consider unsafe in our environment, please inform the incident commander or any emergency responder on site, and let's discuss it at the daily after action briefing (or the next morning safety briefing).
Created February 17, 2010, Updated September 21, 2016