Building trust: The BB view

Back in my early career days at a west coast oil refinery and chemical plant I was assigned to the be the sole Fire and Safety representative for a major “turn-around”. For those that don’t know a turn-around in a refinery means the processing unit and all its corresponding vessels, tanks, boilers, exchangers, pumps, and other equipment come out of service. A turn-around is typically a planned event that involves cleaning, servicing, and inspections. A turn-around can also include evolutionary upgrades often referred to as re-engineering.

For my part as the sole Fire and Safety representative it meant that I worked closely with everyone on the project to ensure blinds were inserted, electrical and instrumentation equipment was locked out, drained and depressurized. I was also responsible for walking down all hot work jobs (welding, cutting, brazing) and signing each hot work permit for the day. In any given day we might have 50 or more hot work permits for the day shift and several Confined Space Entry permits. I always felt like I was the last set of eyes on high-risk activities, and it was my personal responsibility to ensure that each job was set up properly and I didn’t sign off on any job I was not willing to do myself. If I wouldn’t strike an arc or if I wouldn’t enter that space, then I wouldn’t sign the permit or authorize the work. Get it right, but don’t put people at more risk than the job requires already.

On this particular turn-around another job was added to my duties. The flare lines were being upgraded (re-engineered) to increase capacity and efficiency. This flare line was an “atmospheric flare” or a flare that could be seen for miles around at night. Flare lines are safety relief lines that a process unit operator can dump to keep flammable process fluids from over pressuring or overflowing normal operations. Needed every day was a hot work permit for the welders working on the new piping and a confined space entry permit. The CSE permit allowed the welders to enter the new piping (as I recall the pipe was 36 in diameter, schedule 80). If you want to know more about flare systems, I found this site helpful to restore my memory (https://whatispiping.com/flare-system/).

Every turn-around has a project manager and Gary was a good one. I enjoyed working with Gary. He was fair, he was objective, and he was friendly, and pressure didn’t get to him. One day after doing my rounds and getting all the permits out and the confined spaces checked Gary asked me to please go talk to the flare piping welders. As contractors they had submitted a bill for around two hundred dollars for skateboards. Skateboards? We laughed but I said I would and so I did go see the welders who I had a good working relationship with from previous jobs and I respected the work they could do. I am not an inspector, but it is to see beauty in welding when the person doing the welding is just good. And these guys were good.

As I pulled up in my truck, I could see in their gang box they had a couple of skateboards, and they were working at the outside weld screen. Nobody was in the confined space. So, I casually asked without being accusatory why they needed skateboards. That simple question-initiated a dialogue that I was grateful for, and it opened a new opportunity to build trust in our working relationship. Let me be the first to tell you that trust between a safety representative and the craft is paramount to the success of the job. If the craft didn’t trust my judgement when I gas checked their hot work area or their confined space, they would not be very ambitious to get the job done. And I would develop a reputation for being not trustworthy. That is a career killer that would follow me if I allowed it to happen. I never did.

The welders asked me to look at the 36-inch opening and guess how long the pipe was as it rested on sleepers. I guessed maybe 100 feet to the bend (a 90 degree turn at the far end). My guess was close, it was only 90 feet to the bend. They then asked me if I wanted to crawl on my hands and knees down to the bend. I inquired as to why I would want to do that, and they said because that is where we need to go to back weld the lines. One weld takes place when two pieces of pipe are joined, on the outside of the piping. Back welds are done on the inside of the piping at the same place where the two pieces of pipe are joined. The light came on for me in my head. Then they said now consider how to get out of the piping rapidly if there is an emergency anywhere in the plant. I could see their point. Our standing rules included evacuating all confined spaces regardless of where in the plant the emergency might be taking place. They went on to inform me that they tie a rope to the skateboard to rapidly extract whoever is in the piping. Made sense to me.

Then came the challenge. “Hey safety guy, how about stripping out of your radio belt with all those gadgets and going inside to see for yourself?” I was young and always up for a challenge and it was a confined space that I was authorizing every day, so why not? I got out or my radio and gas detector and the other gadgets I had in my pockets and on my belt. I donned my hard hat and safety glasses and listened to their instructions. After all they were the professionals and now, I was the unlearned. I crawled into the pipe opening with my gloves on and the skateboard was tied to a rope and set inside with me. Following instructions, I was advised to lay on my stomach on the skateboard and paddle down as far as I wanted to go. I knew they were challenging me so I stated I would go to the 90-degree bend before coming back. I will never forget the grins on their faces. Not evil but devious. The first thing I noticed as I paddled away was that I had to keep my boots from dragging and that meant I needed to use my abdominal muscles, a lot. I had to keep my head down but pulling with my arms was not real hard because of the quality of the skateboard. The second thing I noticed was in that position that bend in the pipe was a very long way away. Getting to the bend was physically demanding and while a 3-foot diameter pipe sounds big, it really isn’t very big at all. Especially when one must get off the skateboard and turn around to come back out.

As a rule, I am not claustrophobic. Small dark and tight places had not affected me negatively and I had been in a lot of them and would see many more before I left the petrochemical industry. On this bright sunny day in California, I repositioned onto the skateboard and looked up towards the pipe opening where I had entered. I was immediately struck by the fact that from about 90 feet away the 3-foot opening of the pipe looks it is the size of a BB. It was incredibly small, and I was suddenly feeling like I was a million miles from home. I tugged on the rope, the signal for them to pull from the outside and the ride back was much quicker than the ride in. Just stay on the skateboard I thought, don’t fall off now.

The welders were impressed and of course I acted like it was no big deal. Just another day at the office. I had added to my reputation as a safety representative who would go the extra mile and learn from the crafts to help us all do our jobs better and safer. Meanwhile I was never so relieved to be standing outside and seeing the sun again.

And needless to say, I reported back to Gary that the skateboards were a reasonable expenditure. Nothing to worry about boss.