Not everyone has a nice warm office ...
Everyone has to earn a living, but those who do so outdoors are finding working conditions pretty brutal lately.
Penn Power spokesman Chris Eck said on Friday plans are in place for the men and women who read electric meters or respond to line issues as they toil in extreme wind chill conditions like the ones seen in the county recently.
He said special cold-weather protocol is used when temperatures dip below 10 degrees.
Many meter readers, Eck said, like to walk their routes as they record the readouts from homes and businesses.
“Rather than walk the whole route, we encourage them to take frequent breaks in the car to stay warm,” he said.
Eck said Penn Power also has a system for linesmen working an outage.
“If it looks like the job will take awhile, we rotate crews out so that no one crew has to stay in the cold for the duration of the work,” he said.
The same goes for workers performing routine maintenance on various equipment, he said.
Lines that need repairs during strong winds will just have to wait, as Penn Power's policy is no employees in bucket trucks or on ladders when the wind speed reaches 35 mph or higher.
He said in very low temperatures, tree branches can become more brittle and apt to break and fall on lines.
“We don't really see a lot of that unless we have severe weather in addition to a deep freeze,” Eck said.
He said workers are told to use caution and common sense in sub-zero conditions.
“We encourage our workers not to rush the job because they are cold. We say 'go warm up and then finish the job,'” Eck said. “We don't want the cold to lead to shortcuts that can compromise safety.”
Capt. Thomas Fair of the Butler Fire Department said firefighters responding to calls in the frigid weather usually add another layer of clothing underneath the “bunker gear” they wear to a fire.
He said his department got the approval of city council to rent a few torpedo heaters that they can take to the scene of a fire to keep warm.
The firefighters also take turns sitting inside the fire trucks to briefly warm up before heading back into the freezing temperatures to fight a blaze.
The fire department also has a contract with the Butler Transit Authority to bring buses to the scene so firefighters can get inside and stay warm, or cool in extreme heat in the summer.
Keeping the water and equipment thawed is also a major concern of the firefighters in the grip of frigid weather.
He said water must be circulated regularly between the tank and the pump to keep it flowing.
“We've had instances where it's frozen up and we've run into trouble,” Fair said.
He said the torpedo heaters can also be used to keep water from freezing.
“If the trucks aren't working properly, people could get hurt,” Fair said. “The main thing is safety.”
Fair, a firefighter for 29 years, said the most chilling calls he has responded to over the years were in minus-30 degree wind chills.
“I remember being cold on a lot of calls,” he said. “That's why I dread this job in the winter.”
He said to prevent a fire call, space heaters should be kept six feet away from anything that can burn, like curtains or furniture, and they should never be connected to an extension cord.
Some fires, Fair said, are caused by the lack of commonsense.Frozen pipes should never be thawed by a torch or any flame, and appliances like stoves should not be used for heating anything but pots and pans.Fair also recommended opening cabinets containing water pipes that are against an outside wall to allow heat from the room inside the cabinet.“And have working smoke detectors,” Fair said. “I cannot stress that enough.”He said the fire department has extra firefighters on staff this weekend because of the temperatures.“We'll make it,” Fair said of the brutal cold so far this winter. “We'll get through it.”Clair Boring, owner and president of Clair Boring Painting and Services, said job management is the best way to prevent outside work during the coldest days of the year.Boring said he plans roofing, siding and other exterior jobs for times when the mercury registers 20 degrees or higher, and interior jobs during coldest weather.Boring said his crews completed a roofing job on New Year's Eve and he has roofing and siding jobs now that will have to wait.“It's just a little bit too cold,” he said. “If it's 20 to 30 degrees, we'll go out, but once it's in the teens, we're not going to deal with those types of temperatures. It's just not productive.”He said much of the work his 10-man crew engages in involves using the hands, and they can't maneuver in heavy gloves.Boring said windows can be installed during a deep-freeze because workers install them from a building's interior.“We take the old one out and in a few minutes we have a new one in,” he said.Boring guesses that about 80 percent of his work in the summer is exterior and the same amount is interior work in the winter.He doesn't let Mother Nature's ups and downs upset him too much.“If you've been in the business long enough, you expect it,” Boring said.Postal workers on a walking route must also take care to stay safe and warm.Cecilia Ornelas, a clerk in the Butler Post Office, said the daily morning meeting recently included warnings about ice and the distribution of hand warmers for inside gloves and boots.Ornelas said when necessary, carriers wear a special outer boot provided by the USPS that provides warmth and increased traction.She said carriers wear extra layers under their official coat and hat as well as fingerless gloves with mitten covers.Regarding access to a mailbox, Ornelas said carriers are not required to deliver mail to boxes without clear access, full of snow or on icy walkways.“They have to be safe first,” Ornelas said of the walking carriers.She said carriers' hands can be cut and damaged from a lack of sensitivity when they try to put mail into a box that's too small.“So be nice to the carriers because they work hard out there,” Ornelas said.According to www.weather.com, temperatures will become more seasonal on Sunday, when the single digits seen in the last week will give way to warmer conditions. The 10-day forecast also shows normal January temperatures in the 20s, 30s and even 40s.Eagle Staff Writer Laurie Lindsay contributed to this report.
