Stolen Guitars, Fires, Explosions + Window Cleaning Reports

Window cleaner injured as he gave chase to thieves, court told: A window cleaner ran almost naked along a country lane in the early hours chasing two thieves who stole his acoustic guitar, a jury was told. Robert Dobbins had returned home at midnight from his band's practice session, leaving two guitars in his car. He and his wife Victoria were asleep in bed when they were awoken by noises outside their cottage in Bog Lane, Upper Moor, near Pershore. Mr Dobbins described at Worcester Crown Court how, dressed only in his boxer shorts, he sprinted barefoot after two people he saw standing near the Vauxhall Corsa on his driveway. One was carrying his acoustic guitar and the other person had his briefcase. "The last thing I remember was jumping over my guitar left in the lane," said Mr Dobbins.
He and his wife - who had followed him in the pursuit - were both attacked before the thieves fled in their own car, said prosecutor Charles Hardy. But police later matched three fingerprints found on the Corsa's door to a Lithuanian man. Alvydas Pudymaitis, aged 22, of Beaconsfield Road, Mottingham, south-east London, denies theft and two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm. The offences occurred on August 12, 2006 (correct) around 1.30am, said Mr Hardy. The thieves broke into the car before Mr Dobbins ran downstairs and then chased them in the dark.
He was knocked to the ground in the attack and came round lying on a grass verge. His feet were cut and he suffered blows to his face, black eyes and a gash to the back of his head. Mr Dobbins recalled seeing his wife crying. She was punched in the face and knocked against a wall by one thief. She had a cut mouth and a head injury. Pudymaitis was stopped in a police check on October 2 last year. He could not remember being in Worcestershire, said Mr Hardy. But he added: "His fingerprints were on the car. He was one of the two men who broke in. We don't know who his accomplice was." The trial continues.

Potential explosion prevented after van fire: Firefighters prevented a potential explosion after a window cleaner's van caught fire in Forest Town. The van was dual-fuelled, and firefighters were concerned a gas cylinder in the back could explode as it heated up due to the fire. They also had to contend with burning fuel coming from the vehicle running down the road. Residents in Newlands Drive were told to stay inside their homes and keep their windows closed due to the fumes. The burning fuel was then extinguished using almost an entire tank of foam, and the cylinder was cooled using water. Watch manager Darren Warner, of Notts Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We had to treat it with upmost caution and cool it. There was the possibility of projectiles in all directions. "It's biodegradable eco-friendly foam. Up there right now it looks like Christmas." Firefighters were alerted at 10.35am, and the stop message was not given until 11.27am. The van was severely damaged by the fire.

Woman dies in Chatham Twp. house fire: Authorities are investigating a fatal garage fire that killed a Chatham Township woman Monday afternoon. Emergency officials on scene said flames were shooting out the garage when authorities arrived. The blaze spread quickly to the 87-year-old home it anchors, said Chatham Township Police Lt. William Behr. John Strelkoff, who owns Bottle Hill Window Cleaning in Madison, was cleaning windows at the house next door when he heard someone yelling for help outside. The voice, he said, was calling for blankets. "I got outside and saw smoke pouring outside the garage and saw what looked like a body on fire laying next to the car," Strelkoff said. "I tried to grab towels, blankets, but no one could get inside because the heat was so intense. "Things started popping ... glass started breaking, the flames got really big and the smoke started pouring out," he said.

Toronto window washer saved by fall arrest system (Report-Canadian Occupational Health & Safety News): A window cleaner was saved by his fall arrest system after an equipment malfunction caused him to fall 19 storeys from a Toronto building.

On April 2 at about 2:45 pm, the worker employed by Premium Window Cleaning Ltd was on the roof of a 33-storey building preparing to use a bosun's chair to descend the side of the building, confirms Bruce Skeaff, a spokesman from Ontario's Ministry of Labour (MoL). At that point, the bosun's chair - a seat connected to a suspended line - became unhooked from the rope and fell away.

"The worker was left hanging from the ledge and lost grip with his hands and went into a freefall to the 15th floor," says Skeaff. "That's when the fall arrest system kicked in and the rope-grab locked." The worker suffered rope burns to his hands and was taken to St Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

The ministry was unable to disclose how long the worker was suspended in his harness, but Skeaff reports that the company has been issued a stop work order for not having a written emergency rescue procedure in place related to the fall arrest system. Part of the MoL investigation will focus on how the bosun's chair malfunctioned, Skeaff adds.

While the worker was saved in this case, falls from elevations represent a significant hazard. Information from the MoL website reports that one-quarter of all workplace fatalities are the result of falls, and the danger was made more apparent by the events of Christmas Eve last year. Five construction workers were working on scaffolding on the 13th storey of a Toronto building when "the scaffolding, known as a swing stage, separated in the middle and the workers fell to the ground below" (COHSN, January 11, 2010). Four of the workers died at the scene and the fifth suffered critical injuries.

In response to that tragedy, the MoL issued a hazard alert detailing safety procedures for suspended platform work, including proper training; use of fall arrest systems; proper design, construction, use and maintenance of the equipment; and inspections by competent workers and supervisors.

Suspended platforms, such as bosun's chairs, should not be mistaken for fall protection, cautions Andrew Sulowski, president of Sulowski Fall Protection Inc, a Toronto-based consulting firm. "[These] are called work-positioning systems," he says, explaining that while they enable window washers to do their job, they do not provide adequate protection from potentially fatal falls.

"The law requires that in addition to the work-positioning system, the window washer is equipped with a fall arrest system, which in this simple case will consist of another rope attached to the roof to a different anchor point," he explains. "That rope will usually have the fall arrester, and between the fall arrester and the harness there will be a lanyard, which is either energy-absorbing or not."

Sulowski suggests that workers should conduct a before-use inspection on their fall arrest systems. The worker should check to see if straps are cut or if there are any "stains of unknown origins" which may cause the usually soft webbing in the fall protection system to become hard and brittle. The worker should also make sure the metal D-ring at the back of the harness is not damaged, he adds.