Keeping Co-Workers Out of Harm’s Way

Imagine saying to employees: “We need a group of you to do something that will take roughly 40 hours of training initially, then 24 additional hours each year. This isn’t part of your regular work duties, so it won’t directly affect your career advancement. And, oh, you won’t be paid for it. It’s completely voluntary.”

How many employees do you think would raise their hands? Maybe a handful?

At Imperial Sugar’s Port Wentworth refinery, 70 employees have stepped forward to serve on the refinery’s First Responder Team, a group that is thoroughly trained to handle everything from tornadoes (a “Code Grey,” in team parlance) to bomb threats (a “Code Red”).

At Imperial Sugar’s Port Wentworth refinery, 70 employees have stepped forward to serve on the refinery’s First Responder Team. Part of the team includes: (Front row kneeling l-r) Elton Brady, Dannie Barras, Willie Horton, (Back row l-r) Arthur Kelly, Randy Brewster, Joseph Barras, Wade Durden, Willie Garvin and Darren Pevey

Thirty of those 70 joined the team after the refinery reopened in November of 2009, purely voluntarily. Their willingness to put in long hours of training is a testament to the strong belief among the ranks that safety is and must continue to be a top priority.

“People have really stepped up and said, ‘I want to be part of this. I see how important it is,’” says Darren Pevey, a safety manager and facility security officer at Imperial Sugar who is part of the First Responder Team’s monthly meetings and organizes their training sessions.

Volunteers receive classroom and field training in using fire extinguishers (though not if it means going inside a burning building) and in doing confined-space rescues, hazardous-material cleanup, first aid and CPR. In the event of an emergency incident, the shift superintendents on the Responder Team — called Incident Commanders — would take charge of the facility and serve as a liaison between employees and local emergency services.

To have a team trained in emergency procedures isn’t unusual for an industrial facility. What is particularly notable at Port Wentworth, though, is the high level of employee ownership in the program and their bottom-up push for enhanced safety equipment and procedures.

For example, the team is currently creating Standard Operating Procedures for emergency situations, so that team members have a clear understanding of how to handle each of the five emergency Codes — Yellow, Red, Blue, Orange and Grey — in each of the four zones of the refinery.

In a significant upgrade, last month the refinery commissioned a new mass-evacuation alarm system, which sounds a slow, intermittent beep audible to every part of the refinery. Previously, warnings went out over radio and phone lines. “Now,” says Pevey, “we just activate the system, and the alarm goes to speakers in all four zones within the refinery and takes over all radio communications.”

The alarm can be heard beyond the refinery, as well. “Recently we used it to do a weather evacuation for a tornado warning,” says Pevey, “and folks from the port and nearby businesses later told us, ‘Thanks! We heard your alarm and were able to take shelter.’”

Another recent improvement: The First Responder Team, along with a trainer for confined-space rescue, devised an innovative rescue method using a rope system that’s better suited to the refinery’s spaces.

“These are front-line associates — electricians, forklift drivers, shift mechanics, refinery operators — who come from all over the plant to do this training and offer ideas,” says Pevey. “It also says a lot about our employees who aren’t responders, because they have to work extra hard to compensate for their co-workers going through training. We all sacrifice for the success of this team — and that doesn’t go unnoticed.”