Guidelines for Cave-in/Collapse Emergency Response

• Position apparatus no closer than 100 feet to the incident scene.  Designate staging area for other units, and assign a staging officer.
• Locate a job foreman or a responsible eye witness and get as much pertinent information as possible:
• Location and number of victims trapped
• Length of time since cave in/ collapse occurred
• How victims are buried or trapped
• Establish physical barrier for crowd control, with a minimum distance of 100 feet.
• Eliminate sources of vibration:
• Unless essential, shut off all engines and stop all traffic within 500 feet.
• Execute immediate life-saving rescue; however, do not, under any circumstances, allow any personnel to enter an unshored trench if depth is four feet or more.
• Notify Westmoreland County  911 and request outside resources as incident demands

April 2001