hen snow piles up on rooftops, shoveling is a prudent choice for the safety of the roof. For the safety of the shoveler, there’s fall protection equipment.
“Our fall protection products are all over the board,” says Clint VanNoy, president of Alaska Safety, an industrial supplier with locations in Anchorage and Wasilla. “We have roof anchoring systems, self-retracting lifelines, and more. We also stock a variety of slip protection items for shoes, including ice cleats.”
Roof shoveling, with the proper gear, need not be any more dangerous than the next job. And there’s gear available to mitigate the dangers of the next job, too. Personal safety equipment needs vary depending on the location and the task, but whatever Alaskans are doing in their professional lives or private lives, safety suppliers have the equipment they need to stay safe while getting the job done.
A major part of Alaska Safety’s business includes building out turnkey police vehicles. To accomplish this, the company equips the vehicles with safety partitions, G3Vision in-car video, spotlights, beacons, grille lights, and more.
The company also utilizes “moose lights” to increase visibility of wildlife on the roads. “The moose lights are a large, steady-burn light typically installed on off-road vehicles like Jeeps. But we put them on law enforcement vehicles to help officers see moose and other wildlife,” VanNoy explains.
Alaska Safety also sells personal protection equipment for public safety officers. Respiratory protection aids officers facing dangerous experiences including drug laboratory clean outs, perimeter control of hazardous material spill sites, first response emergency rescue, preliminary investigations at suspicious sites, and riot response. Any of these situations can yield infectious or toxic gases and vapors.
For government, businesses, and individuals, Alaska Safety provides a variety of truck vaults for vehicle organization. One example is the Captain LX, which features a magnum height weapons drawer capable of carrying scoped firearms side-by-side, coupled with a five-drawer unit including a front-loading cubby for bulk items. Another favorite is The Chief, which reigns as the most popular command center and features two extending file drawers, a fold-up map board, full-size weapons drawer, and two additional utility drawers.
Eagle Enterprises Safety Solutions, in business since 1972 with locations in Anchorage and Homer, fabricates aviation survival kits to meet this requirement. “We custom design kits to the correct capacity for the aircraft, for example a two-person super cub requires a two-person capacity kit,” explains Eagle Enterprises sales and leasing manager Mike Murphy. “Our kits are created to meet the State of Alaska standards and include a mix of items someone may possibly need in a survival situation.”
Aviation safety kit contents include 3,600-calorie food rations, signal mirror, aerial flares, matches, head nets, tea light candles, nylon cord, survival knife, survival axe, water bag, water purification tablet, whistle, magnesium fire starter, fishing kit, insect repellent, and a space blanket. Going beyond the basics, Eagle Safety also offers customized survival kits with optional accessory items including personal locator beacons. Other products available include aviation life rafts and aviation life vests.
For travel on the water, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game requires all boaters to have one US Coast Guard-approved life jacket for each person aboard. The life vest must be in serviceable condition. Persons 13 years of age and younger are required by law to wear a life jacket at all times when in an open boat or on the boat deck.
Eagle Enterprises offers options to meet this regulation, as well, such as the Lifesling3 Overboard Rescue System. This flotation collar includes twenty-one pounds of buoyancy. It can be towed to an overboard crew member or passenger rather than the individual having to swim to it. The system also can be used as a lifting sling to help the individual get out of the water. For larger boats, the rescue system includes a longer 150-foot retrieval line. Additional features include stainless D-rings that facilitate lifting the person out of the water, two-inch-wide SOLAS reflecting tape for increased visibility at night, and a rugged, UV-resistant fiberglass case, which includes graphics illustrating the instructions for recovering a person in the water. The kit is Coast Guard approved for both recreational and commercial vessels.
Purchasing appropriate equipment is just one step in maintaining a safe environment on the job or in outdoor pursuits. It’s equally important to thoroughly clean and maintain safety equipment.
Thus, in addition to providing a variety of safety equipment, Eagle Enterprises serves as a federally approved service station for inspection and service of inflatable lifesaving rafts and vests used for aviation and marine activities. Service centers can inspect and clean immersion suits, flotation coats, flotation coveralls, and transport suits. Additionally, Eagle Enterprises specializes in cleaning garments soiled during oil spill cleanups.
“We see a mix of customers for the bear fence kits,” says Murphy. “Hunters often use them to protect their encampment or—if they get a kill—the fence keeps the bears away until they get a chance to transport it out. We’ve got some folks that have chickens or rabbits and need protection for their cages to keep predators out.”
Backcountry hikers sometimes pack the kits, too, for campsite defense. “We include instructions with the fence and, of course, answer the questions of our customers to make this reasonably easy to set up,” says Murphy. “Recently we’ve had some customers inquire about kits that cover bigger areas. We’re working with them on a custom installation.”
For a different approach to bear deterrence, Alaska Safety sells the Rumbler low-frequency siren, originally developed for police to clear traffic more effectively. “You don’t hear the system as much as you feel it through a vibration,” says VanNoy. “We sell them to customers in Northern Alaska to help keep polar bears out of neighborhoods. The bears feel the vibrations, and they don’t like them, so it keeps them away.”
In a state where remote lands far exceed populated areas, wildlife roams freely, and snowfall is much more than a light dusting, safety equipment is part of everyday life whether on the job or enjoying time in nature.