Confined Space Rescue Plan Generator

How to use this plan

1. 1
   Describe the space as a rescue problem, not as a job. Step 2 asks the four questions Appendix F asks: is the inside open or obstructed, is the portal on the side or on the top, how far above grade is it, and how wide is it at its narrowest. Those four answers decide whether anyone can get a limp body out, and the plan turns them into the list of capabilities the service has to have.
2. 2
   Start from non-entry rescue. A retrieval line on a harness, tended from outside, is the only rescue that does not put a second person in the space. It is required unless it would increase the overall risk of entry or would not contribute to the rescue, and the plan asks you to write down which of those two applies if you skip it.
3. 3
   Name the service, then record what you actually know about it. The evaluation checklist in step 4 is Appendix F's, item by item. Every box you cannot tick is a question to ask before the entry, not after.
4. 4
   Write the sentence the caller will say. Under stress nobody composes. “Confined space rescue, digester manhole D-2, gate 3, one entrant down, H2S” is a plan; “call 911” is not.
5. 5
   Print it and hang it at the portal. The first section of the printed plan is the phone number and the instruction not to enter, in that order, big enough to read from arm's length. Everything else is for before the entry.
6. 6
   Re-verify at every entry. The entry supervisor has to confirm the service is available and the means of summoning it works — 1910.146(j)(4). A plan written in March does not prove the team is on shift today.

What OSHA requires

The four procedures 1910.146(d)(9) requires

One paragraph, four duties: develop and implement procedures for summoning rescue and emergency services, for rescuing entrants from permit spaces, for providing necessary emergency services to rescued employees, and for preventing unauthorized personnel from attempting a rescue. Most written plans cover the first and skip the fourth, which is the one that would have saved the second worker in the case above. 1926.1204(i) is the construction version and adds procedures for summoning emergency assistance after a failed non-entry rescue.

Posting a phone number is not a plan — OSHA says so

Appendix F to 1910.146, section A(I), is unusually blunt for a non-mandatory appendix: “Merely posting the service's number or planning to rely on the 911 emergency phone number to obtain these services at the time of a permit space emergency would not comply with paragraph (k)(1) of the standard.” Paragraph (k)(1) requires four things of an employer who designates a rescue service:

• Evaluate the prospective rescuer's ability to respond to a summons in a timely manner, considering the hazards identified — (k)(1)(i).
• Evaluate its proficiency with rescue-related tasks and equipment for this type of space — (k)(1)(ii).
• Select one that can reach the victims in an appropriate time frame and is equipped for and proficient in the needed services — (k)(1)(iii).
• Inform it of the hazards it may confront, and give it access to the spaces so it can develop plans and practice — (k)(1)(iv) and (v).

On construction work, 1926.1211(a)(3)(iii) adds a fifth: the service must agree to notify the employer immediately if it becomes unavailable. And what “timely” means is not a fixed number. Appendix F(A)(II)(1): if the entry is into an IDLH atmosphere, or into a space that can quickly develop one, the rescue team would need to be standing by at the permit space; a ten or fifteen minute response might be adequate only where the danger is limited to mechanical injuries.

Non-entry rescue, and its hardware

1910.146(k)(3) requires a retrieval system whenever an authorized entrant enters a permit space, unless the equipment would increase the overall risk of entry or would not contribute to the rescue. The construction standard states it as a duty at 1926.1211(c) and adds the corollary: where non-entry rescue is not selected, the employer must designate an entry rescue service, and where it is selected, the employer must confirm before entry that emergency assistance would be available if it fails.

If the team is yours

1910.146(k)(2) and 1926.1211(b) apply to an employer whose own employees are designated as rescuers, and everything in them is at no cost to those employees: the PPE needed to perform rescues safely, with training to proficiency in it; training in the assigned rescue duties, including completing the training required of authorized entrants; training in basic first aid and CPR, with at least one member holding a current certification in first aid and CPR available; and practice at least once every 12 months, removing dummies, manikins or actual persons from the actual permit spaces or from representative ones. Representative means representative in opening size, configuration and accessibility — which is why step 2 of this generator records those three things.

The attendant is not the rescue plan

The attendant performs non-entry rescue as the employer's procedure specifies — 1910.146(i)(9) — and summons rescue as soon as they judge that entrants may need help escaping — (i)(7). But (i)(4) requires the attendant to remain outside the permit space until relieved by another attendant, and the note to that paragraph allows an attendant to enter for rescue only where the employer's program permits it and the attendant has been trained and equipped under (k)(1) and has been relieved. An attendant who climbs in has left the remaining entrants with nobody outside, nobody counting, and nobody to call.

This generator produces a template. It does not establish compliance with 1910.146 or 1926 Subpart AA, does not evaluate any rescue service on your behalf, and is not a substitute for the training required by 1910.146(g), 1910.146(k)(2) and 1926.1207. Have a qualified person and your rescue service review this plan before you rely on it.

Frequently asked questions