Incident Report

Subject:                         FW: Scaffold Incident          

Date of Email reporting Incident:   Tue 10/07/2001 08:52

Report Detail:

During a routine scaffold housekeeping inspection the above 11” metal

“carrot / podger” was found inside a scaffold tube. It is assumed that one of the existing tube caps had been removed to allow this unsafe practice. The metal “podger” was left in a very dangerous place and could easily have caused serious injury to someone during dismantling.

Obviously the practice of storing equipment inside scaffold tubes MUST be discouraged. To reduce the chances of operatives using scaffold tubes as storage areas the Conoco Humber Refinery Scaffolding Coordinator will recommend an alternative means of securing scaffold tube ends.

Meanwhile, to ensure that scaffold dismantling is carried out in a SAFE and EFFICIENT manner, all Supervisors, Foremen and Scaffolding personnel MUST be made aware of the following points: -The area immediately below these activities MUST be barriered off and warning notices posted.

• When dismantling scaffold tubes be AWARE of the possibility of tools and other equipment that may have been placed inside the tubes i.e. Welding rods, chisels, knives, screwed rod, metal wedges and small bore pipe etc.
• Be AWARE of debris, tools and redundant equipment which may have been left on the scaffold boards i.e. bolts, spanners, flanges etc. and clean up before dismantling.