If possible, test the air for oxygen deficiency, poisonous gases, and explosive vapors.

Wear a hose (air line) mask or oxygen breathing apparatus. The air line mask is preferred for use in spaces that may contain high concentrations of oil or gasoline vapors. Do not depend upon a protective mask or a wet cloth held over your face to protect you from oxygen deficiency or poisonous gases.

Before going into a compartment that may contain explosive vapors, be sure that people are stationed nearby with fire-extinguishing equipment.

Figure 3-26.-Moving a victim away from an electrical line.

When going into any space that may be deficient in oxygen or contain poisonous or explosive vapors, be sure to maintain communication with someone outside. Wear a lifeline, and be sure that it is tended by a competent person.

Do not use, wear, or carry any object or material that might cause a spark. Matches, cigarette lighters, flashlights, candles or other open flames, and ordinary electrical lights must NEVER be taken into a compartment that may contain explosive vapors. The kind of portable light used by cleaning parties in boilers, fuel tanks, and similar places may be taken into a suspect compartment. This is a steam-tight, glove-type light whose exposed metal parts are either made of nonsparking alloy or protected in some way so they will not strike a spark.

An electrical apparatus or tool that might spark must never be taken into a compartment until a DCO has indicated that it is safe to do so. When electrical equipment is used (e.g., an electric blower might be used to vent a compartment of explosive vapors), it must be explosion proof and properly grounded.

If you go into a space that may contain explosive vapors, do not wear clothing that has any exposed spark-producing metal. For example, do not wear boots or shoes that have exposed nailheads or rivets, and do not wear coveralls or other garments that might scrape against metal and cause a spark.

Aparticular caution must be made concerning the use of the steel-wire lifeline in compartments that may contain explosive vapors. If you use the line, be sure that it is carefully tended and properly grounded at all times. When other considerations permit, you should use a rope line instead of the steel-wire lifeline when entering compartments that may contain explosive vapors.

RESCUE FROM THE WATER.-You should never attempt to swim to the rescue of a drowning person unless you have been trained in lifesaving methods-and then only if there is no better way of reaching the victim. Adrowning person may panic and fight against you so violently that you will be unable either to carry out the rescue or to save yourself. Even if you are not a trained lifesaver, however, you can help a drowning person by holding out a pole, oar, branch, or stick for the victim to catch hold of, or by throwing a lifeline or some buoyant object that will support the victim in the water.

Various methods are used aboard ship to pick up survivors from the water. The methods used in any particular instance will depend upon weather conditions, the type of equipment available aboard the rescue vessel, the number of people available for rescue operations, the physical condition of the people requiring rescue, and other factors. In many cases it has been found that the best way to rescue a person from the water is to send out a properly trained and properly equipped swimmer with a lifeline.

It is frequently difficult to get survivors up to the deck of the rescuing vessel, even after they have been brought alongside the vessel. Cargo nets are often used, but many survivors are unable to climb them without assistance. Persons equipped with lifelines (and, if necessary, dressed in anti-exposure suits) can be sent over the side to help survivors up the nets. If survivors are covered with oil, it may take the combined efforts of four or five people to get one survivor up the net.

Aseriously injured person should never, except in an extreme emergency, be hauled out of the water by means of a rope or lifeline. Special methods must be devised to provide proper support, both to keep the victim in a horizontal position and to provide protection from any kind of jerking, bending, or twisting motion. The Stokes stretcher (described later in this chapter) can often be used to rescue an injured survivor. People on the deck of the ship can then bring the stretcher up by means of handlines. Life preservers, balsa wood, unicellular material, or other flotation gear can be used, if necessary, to keep the stretcher afloat.