Process safety is something I’m incredibly passionate about! Everything can change in the event of an emergency; and as a process safety leader, it’s my job to always be prepared to protect lives at our manufacturing facilities. Much planning and preparation goes into learning how to work well together as an emergency response team, like in a brigade, within Celanese as well as in our community. Working together to KeepSAFE is an important company value. I’m proud to be a volunteer on our internal brigade, as well as a volunteer on the local fire department and I would like to share some information about what we do.
A brigade is a group of people – in this case Celanese operators and employees – who must be ready to attend and respond to any incident, such as a fire, hazardous materials release, first aid and rescue. Being part of the brigade is a position requirement, but some members are so passionate about it that we are also volunteers on Ocotlan’s local fire department in our spare time, including Salvador Angulo, Ocotlan’s Emergency response leader.
I’m proud to share that recently our Ocotlan site, in coordination with CLAMCI (Cienega’s Mutual Committee for Local Aid) won the 16th National Brigades Competition 2018, organized by the National Emergency Brigade School (ECBE – ANIQ), led by Salvador Angulo, for the second consecutive time with a total of four first place championships. This community-wide competition includes other companies and our local fire departments. In this support group we share knowledge, experiences and practice together. This helps us to be prepared to step in to help anyone or any company on the CLAMCI team.
The National Emergency Brigade School (ECBE), a Mexican school for brigades, organizes a high-level competition each year for all the high-risk companies’ brigades. The competition is three days long with eight group events, including fire, hazardous materials, resources optimization, triathlon, trivia, and two individual competitions – an Iron Man and an Iron Woman. This year both the Cangrejera and Ocotlan sites were represented in the competition.
The following photos were taken during the night events at this year’s competition. The first picture consisted of an elevated LP gas tank where fire brigade members were asked to close three valves, two at the ground level and one on the top of a structure. Both brigades did this exercise with no errors.
The other night event was about controlling a fire on a Christmas tree type structure with LP gas. Brigades were also asked to close three valves.
In addition to the first place award, CLAMCI won the individual event prime for hazardous material control and the triathlon (swimming rescue, RCP and climbing and rappelling).
Congratulations to everyone on the team for achieving this recognition and to all the brigades that show this passion on a daily basis.
Congratulations! You are a great example.
Thanks Diana! You’re doing an excellent job as well with the volunteering work in Cangrejera. Please share some of your experiences with the community, I’m sure everyone will love them.
Akemi, what an excellent story, I am so glad you shared this with us. When I was younger I also was a member of our site’s emergency brigade and a community volunteer fire department and rescue squad. It takes a lot of team work, dedication and a passion that is hard to explain. The passion to mitigate the situation rather than run from it. Some people think we are crazy, but it is a passion that few have. And unfortunately we do not do enough to recognize the training, long hours and hard work that goes into being a member of the brigade or outside department. Please pass along my personal congratulations to the team at Ocotlan and to you, especially for taking the time to bring this wonderful accomplishment to our attention. I’m very proud of you.
Lisa, thanks for sharing such a beautiful comment. Wow! I did not know you were a volunteer and a brigade member. That’s amazing! It is something to admire and congratulate. I really liked the part of your comment on not running from the situation, you’re completely right and is something we tend to do, but being part of a brigade teaches you to avoid.
Sure, I’ll share your comment with the brigade members. Thanks again for your comment and for supporting us.
Great post Akemi. Passion for what we do within the stewardship arena is key to get an excellent performance.
Marco, thanks for your comment and for always encourage us to be more and better, and always do it with passion.
We can prevent all process safety incidents at Celanese with this type of passion and commitment! Congratulations!!
Jerry, thanks for your comment and constant support. Sure, we can prevent all process safety incidents and the more we know and we get involved, the better our processes and our performance on PS will be.
Let’s all keep working to never get to use your magnificent emergency services! but when a chain of unfortunate events presents, I would feel good we have the best team to respond. Thanks for keeping us safe and bringing proud to our site. Celanese Ocotlan #1 Congratulations!
Congratulations Akemi