Toolbox Talk · ~5 minutes

# Confined Space Awareness

Confined spaces kill rescuers — over half of confined-space deaths are people who went in after the first victim. That statistic is the whole talk.

[Print the sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[All toolbox talks](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks.html)

## How to run it

Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes
at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens.
Under O. Reg. 213/91, s. 14(3)–(4), the talk is held by a
supervisor or a competent person the supervisor appoints — and the
sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.

## Talk through these points

- Know what counts: tanks, pits, vaults, crawlspaces — not designed for people, limited ways in and out, and able to hold a bad atmosphere.

- The air lies. Oxygen-deficient or toxic atmospheres have no look and often no smell — testing is the only way to know, before entry and continuously.

- No assessment, no entry. If the space hasn't been assessed and the entry planned, the job hasn't started yet.

- An attendant stays outside, in contact, with one job: nobody else goes in, and rescue gets called properly.

- If someone goes down inside: DO NOT follow them in. That instinct is the killer. Call the rescue plan.

- Ventilation, isolation of lines feeding the space, and lockout of what moves inside — the setup IS the safety.

## Ask the crew

- What on our sites actually qualifies as a confined space that we treat casually?

- If someone dropped in a vault right now, what would each of us actually do?

- Who's trained on the gas monitor — and when was it calibrated?

The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard,
write it down and assign it a name and a date.

## Paper it

A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is
concerned. Print these free:

[Toolbox talk sign-in sheet](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=toolbox-talk-sign-in#form-library)
[Confined space assessment](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=confined-space-assessment#form-library)
[Confined space entry permit](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools?form=confined-space-entry-permit#form-library)

## A new talk every week.

The toolbox talks page rotates a featured topic weekly — bookmark it, or grab the talk by email every Monday.

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[Hot Work & Fire Watch](https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/hot-work-fire-watch.html)
[All 126 contractor forms](https://bluecraneworks.ca/tools#form-library)

## Next, from Blue Crane

- [**Safe Work Procedure template**Write the procedure this talk refers to](https://bluecraneworks.ca/safe-work-procedure-template.html)

- [**Field Level Hazard Assessment**The form the crew fills in before the work starts](https://bluecraneworks.ca/field-level-hazard-assessment-flha.html)

- [**Document Control Systems**Sign-offs, certs and safety records, provable in under a minute](https://bluecraneworks.ca/solutions/document-control.html)

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Source: https://bluecraneworks.ca/toolbox-talks/confined-space-awareness