Beware the snakes!
Published: 01 September, 2008
In some parts of the world fires are the least of a firefighter’s worries! A firefighter in South Africa writes:
“Whilst attending a meeting our receptionist made an alarm regarding a snake in the building. I went to investigate and found a Rinkhals (aka Spitting Cobra) at the entrance of the building. Having some knowledge (and firemen will do anything to prove themselves) I caught the snake and took it out to the veldt and released it again. I was everyone’s hero and after returning to the station I was informed that this is not such a rare occurrence but that this type of snake is regularly encountered in our plant and that firemen are called out to remove the danger.
“The Occupational Health and Safety Act, Section 8, makes it clear that the employer must ensure that employees are competent to perform the task/s that the employer requires.
“Where in the curriculum of a firefighter’s training do we address identification and handling of snakes?
“As the legally appointed Section 16.2 person under the said Occupational Health and Safety Act, I realised that should one of my employees get bitten by a venomous snake, I would be held liable and I should have proof that I had trained the employee to perform this task.
“I know from 36 years experience as a fireman, that this is not an isolated case, but that all over the world fire fighters are called out to similar emergencies.
“Chief Fire Officers, will you be able to proof competency of your employees in this regard?
“We have embarked on a training intervention to get enough firefighters declared competent to identify and handle snakes (not only dangerous snakes, as all snakes need the same respect) and this great service was rendered by African Reptiles and Venom. We now have at least 70 per cent of our employees trained and the remaining 30 per cent volunteered not to be trained – you cannot make this compulsory, but since this course was made part of our normal competency curriculum, we have learned that snake handling for the informed and trained person, is not a dangerous activity. I personally will promote this for all our emergency services.”
