Honeywell Analytics Donate Portable Gas Detectors to all UK Cave/Mine Rescue Teams
The British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) is extremely grateful to Peter Barratt (Key Account Manager, Honeywell Analytics, Middlewich, Cheshire) and Joe Exon (Zone Manager, Honeywell Analytics, Poole, Dorset) for the generous donation of portable gas detectors to all fifteen BCRC underground (cave and mine) rescue teams across the UK and Ireland.
Peter Barratt formally presented the gas detectors to teams at the BCRC AGM held at Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service HQ, Buxton on Sunday 7 April.
He announced “Honeywell Analytics are delighted to provide British Cave Rescue Council teams with portable gas monitors and associated calibration equipment, which form part of the essential safety equipment needed for their operations. The new monitors will provide pre-entry safe level checks and continuously monitor during operations for the following hazardous gases: Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide, Carbon Monoxide, depleted Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.”
BCRC Chairman Peter Dennis said: “We are extremely grateful to Peter and colleagues at Honeywell Analytics for this very generous donation of gas detectors to BCRC cave/mine rescue teams. There is a significant duty of care to the underground search and rescue volunteers for the Wardens and Surface Control personnel, of any team, when managing a rescue incident in support of the Police. This responsibility is greatly assisted when one of the underground hazards, specifically of poor air quality or toxic gases, can be detected before endangering the lives of rescuers or those being rescued. The donation has been made at a critical time because the gas detectors currently used by teams are close to end of service life.”
Mike Clayton, BCRC Equipment Officer added, “We also acknowledge the important role that Pete Dell, Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation, made in the arrangements with Peter Barratt prior to this important donation from Honeywell Analytics and for his continued service, running over many years, in regularly re-calibrating the detectors of all teams”.
Teams were issued with two sets of the Gas Alert MicroClip X3 [Four-Gas] and a smaller number of sets of Gas Alert Micro5 [Five-Gas] which will be distributed amongst selected teams, where Carbon Dioxide is a recorded hazard in the mines or caves of the area they cover.
