Water safety training
A training course today with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The DEFRA Module 1 on Water Safety awareness in a four hour session up at Ebley Mill.
The instructor, Jordan, was excellent. He trains in a variety of topics, but has also volunteered for the last ten years as a first responder for water incidents. So he brought a lot of practical knowledge to the material.
I spend quite a bit of time in rivers, and working by waterways. So it was extremely helpful to have a detailed overview of the various risks and issues to be aware of while working near water.
The main takeaways for me were spotting egress points in advance, understanding river flow and the procedure for assisting someone who has fallen in (Shout, throw, reach).
A rather controversial part was the division of site into Hot zone (the water), the warm zone (three meters from water) and cold zone (beyond that). The guidelines when working in the warm zone is that life jacket or flotation jacket should be worn. This would definitely extend to Himalayan Balsam pulling which we don’t do.
