Close to 60 CEC employees participate in rescue training exercises | News

PERRYVILLE, MO (KFVS) - Nearly 60 Citizens Electric employees in the utility’s operations department completed rescue training exercises Tuesday in Perryville and Ste. Genevieve.

According to CEC, 29 linemen successfully simulated a rescue effort from the top of a utility pole, and 57 operations department employees completed an exercise rescuing a person from a bucket truck. Linemen are required to perform both tasks.

The scenario in each training exercise was a person had made electrical contact or experienced some other medical emergency such as a heart attack. For the procedure, the lineman calls up to the person, seeking a response. If no response is received, the lineman evaluates the safety of the area and then radios or calls for help. Next, the lineman works to remove the person from the pole or out of the bucket and performs first-aid as required until medical personnel arrive on the scene.

“It’s more than climbing a pole,” said CEC Safety Director and Senior Engineering Technician Dennis Winkler. “The men have to complete the process as quickly as possible – within six minutes. After six minutes, brain damage can occur.”

Darrell Cuppy, a training instructor for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, of which CEC is a member, led the training and started the day with a classroom briefing on the exercises. Utilities are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to complete pole-top and bucket truck rescue training annually.

Citizens Electric is a not-for-profit electric utility serving nearly 27,000 members and maintaining more than 3,100 miles of energized lines within its service territory, which consists of all of Ste. Genevieve and Perry counties, the northern portion of Cape Girardeau County and the eastern part of St. Francois County.

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