WEYBURN – A group of rig workers from the Weyburn area spent three days in courses at the Weyburn campus of Southeast College over the weekend, learning about rig safety and the proper techniques for rescuing someone injured on a rig.
Dwayne Arneson, a contractor from Red Deer, Alta., was brought in to put on the Energy Safety Canada course designed for rig hands.
He first put on a 16-hour course on Friday and Saturday, involving workers from both service and drilling rigs, on safety protocols for ascending and descending from a rig.
He then put on an eight-hour course on rescue techniques on Sunday.
Both classes involved class time, going over the various techniques and safety protocols, and practical time on a training rig outside, putting those techniques into practice.
The students practiced a number of scenarios of how to rescue someone injured while up on a rig, with different techniques for safely getting the person down, and for raising or lowering a person from a rig.
