Laborers train for confined space rescue operations

Journeymen from Laborers’ Local 17 are taking part in a Confined Space Rescue class at the trades’ training facility in Newburgh. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), approximately 60 percent of confined-space fatalities are rescuers. “Some of the equipment has gotten newer, nicer, a little easier to work with, but the actual principals have all stayed the same,” says Rich Chiaramonte, a retired New York City firefighter with a special operations unit who now teaches confined space rescue classes. Watch as the journeymen travel through a 48-foot tunnel, guided only by the light on his helmet and the cries of his fellow worker waiting to be helped.

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