A 45-degree tilt, crashing surf churning underneath, heavy northwest wind, metal cutting torches burning at around 2,000 degrees, multi-ton pieces of steel moving overhead.

It’s a dangerous job for Titan Salvage workers cutting apart the New Carissa.

“The tilt, the weather out here, everything added into the mix creates something else we have to think about,” said Titan Salvage Superintendent Shelby Harris.

And safety is the top concern.

 Florida-based Titan Salvage is removing the New Carissa’s stern from the surf near the North Spit this summer and Managing Director David Parrot is determined to get it done without any injuries to his crew.

A dangling connection

Working with a torch hot enough to cut through steel takes two hands, but a 45-degree slant in the floor on which you’re standing doesn’t make that easy. Before starting work, a cutter must learn a technique called rope access. It allows him to keep both hands on the job.

Rope access trainer Glenn Speight said the tactic is one of relying on ropes to stabilize yourself.

Speight works for RescueRig, of Phoenix, Ariz. The company typically teaches access and rescue techniques to firefighters and search-and-rescue teams. For Titan’s crew, it was a three-day training session in rope access and fall protection on the wreck site, shortly after both barges were in place.

“We teach these guys to do their jobs safely on rope,” he said Thursday.

The techniques allows the workmen to slice up the wreck without scaffolding or work platforms. Most of the training took place on the deck of the Karlissa A barge — a safer environment than on the New Carissa itself.

Titan crews first removed a water container from the shipwreck and happened to have it set it up on the deck before the training session. Speight decided to use that for initial practice. The trainees were anchored to the container and then climbed in through a window, learned to move around in the confined space until they found their way out.

Speight was impressed with how willing the Titan crews were to learn a different way of performing their jobs.

“Going into a training like this, sometimes its a tough crowd,” he said. “These guys were very open because they understand the difficulty of what they are doing.”

Harris said maneuvering inside the New Carissa is like walking around in a carnival fun house.

“You really have to concentrate on every step,” he said. “You don’t have to tell them that.”

Titan equipped the crew with specially designed Kevlar ropes and fire-resistant harnesses to withstand the sparks and the potential for the ropes to catch on something sharp. Workers are suspended on two ropes secured from above on two separate anchors. Coveralls, gloves, safety glasses complete the cutters’ gear.

Just in case

Ropes and harnesses are meant to prevent the workers from falling into the water or on the wreck itself. But just in case, the crew recently spent time with the U.S. Coast Guard learning what to do if that does happen. Aircraft commander Lt. j.g. Patrick Reid and a helicopter crew briefed and trained the crew on the rescue basket and other equipment the Coast Guard would use to scoop them out of the water.

“We orientated them to the basket and what it looks like, so it wouldn’t be the first time they’d seen it,” Reid said.

Harris said he wanted his crew to go through the training so they wouldn’t second-guess what they needed to do if an accident happened.

“The whole idea was to give them a comprehensive briefing and training on the equipment before seeing it during an actual rescue situation,” Reid said.

Safety classes, instruction and inspections are a regular part of Titan Salvage’s working environment.

Harris said members of the crew have gone through many safety, training and refresher courses. For example:

n hazardous material training.

n rope access.

n confined space rescue.

n CPR and first aid.

n specialized equipment.

n diving.

Crews must remain on the lookout for anything that could pose a safety threat to workers or visitors, Harris said. Titan’s equipment must go through constant inspections. Both cranes, the jacks that are holding up the barges, rigging and cables all must pass muster for work to continue safely.

“We are always looking for potential problems,” Harris said.

Moving metal

Crews are taking away pieces of their work environment every day. All that heavy metal moving overhead presents a risk.

Billy Stender is a crane operator and diver with Titan. On this project, he runs Big Red, the big crane on the Karlissa B, to lift off and move chunks of the New Carissa.

In Big Red’s control room, Stender wears a ball cap with the logo of the crane company. On the back of the cap is embroidered the words, “Get it up safely.”

It’s a working man’s environment to be sure, but the words also are indicative of how seriously the crew takes safety.

When it come to lifting a heavy piece of steel, it’s all about finding the perfect center. Salvage Superintendent Dave Grecho said the crane must be centered directly over the chunk of steel it is lifting to prevent the piece from swinging.

On Monday, Grecho and Stender worked as a team to lift a newly cut slice off the front of the wreck. Grecho radioed instructions to Stender in the process of getting the rigging in just the right place. Titan workers leave hangers, or pieces of uncut steel, that temporarily keep the piece in place until it is secured. Grecho said the New Carissa’s 45-degree slope is one of the determining factors when choosing where to leave a hanger. Workers want to stay uphill of a cut and be able to brace themselves on something solid.

“You want to be on a solid deck, in case it drops or swings out,” he said.

Monday the work was slow and methodical. Stender patiently watched and waited for instructions, moved the crane, then waited some more. After a series of incremental movements of the gigantic crane, workers secured the pieces and Grecho cut through the rest of steel slab, weighing about 6,009 pounds. Stender lifted it off the wreck and swung it away.

That is not the only tricky work.

Once the pieces are removed, they have to be cautiously stacked so workers can have safe access.

“You have to be really careful when you stack because you know you have to go back in there,” Grecho said. “You don’t want anything teetering when you are climbing up there or then you will have a scrapalanche.”

— Staff Writer Susan Chambers contributed to this report.