Safety hits close to home

The evolution of safety in the workplace has come a long way since the 50's and 60's when my father worked for a well known gas company here in St. Louis. He was on the street department in the main crew repairing leaks on gas main and restore services to houses and businesses. On many of occasions he would have to dig ditches by hand without the use of the equipment and machinery that are available today. He did hard manual labor for all of his life up until he retired when he was 62.

During the very beginning of his employment in 1957 he on call he responded to a leaking gas line with his partner and crew. It was raining that night so everyone was in rain gear. My father was in the ditch/ hole fixing the leak when it was engulfed in flames. His partner ran for fear of catching on fire while my father was still trapped in the ditch. During those fiery moments the rain gear melted to his skin. The flames were extinguished and he was pulled from the ditch. He spent the next 2 months in the hospital recovering from 2nd to 3rd degree burns all over his eyes, hands, face and head. He had to endure many skin graphs and surgeries to mold his face back. There was fear of long term damage to his eyes and permanent loss of dexterity and use of his hands where most of the skin graphs occurred. He recovered with little lingering side effects. His face nor the rest of his body show the markings of being severely burned, which is amazing since reconstructive plastic surgery was so primitive during the 50's and 60's. After he recovered he went right back to work with his same crew.

This event occurred before my time, and it was not discussed often in my house hold because of all of the painfully memories that came with it, but it is forever engrained in my memory. In addition to the events from my family, other close families and friends who are also dealing with the illnesses from exposures to asbestos, welding and other trades during the time where workplace safety was not enforced. They too have to live and have died with the consequences of the lack of enforced workplace safety.

This experience along with others have added to my passion of wanting to create safe work environments so that workers can go home to their families at the end of each day in one piece and in good heath.