Day in the life of a Casey plumber isn’t what you might think. Sure, there are the usual jobs, but what plumber do you know who has lay surgical skills or search and rescue training?

Casey maintenance plumbers

Casey station has two maintenance plumbers that keep the buildings at the station warm and the water flowing. Most days consist of starting off by pumping water from our frozen lake into our holding tanks via our melt bell. Then it’s off to our incinerator ‘Warren’ to burn the station rubbish from the day before. After this is done, there are monthly maintenance jobs which consist of everything from fire service checks to ensuring the heating and ventilation systems in each building are running smoothly, and fixing anything that is not up to scratch.

Cameron pressure testing the repaired melt bell with a water pressure testing bucket.
Jimmy conducting maintenance checks on the workshop heating boilers holding the flu gas analyser equipment.

Secondary station jobs

On top of our plumbing duties we have fire and SAR (search and rescue) responsibilities. Cam is our fire chief and James fills in the BA1 (breathing apparatus) role. Cam is trained in lay surgical and is one member of a team of four who assist the doctor in any serious medical incidents. James is glacier and crevasse rescue trained as part of the SAR team.

Jimmy and Cameron at Fire training dressed in their turn out clothing and self-contained breathing apparatus.
Team of expeditioners training for stretcher rescue on the edge of a crevasse with station buildings in the background.

Water tank cleaning

This month consisted of draining and cleaning the three 90k litre fresh water holding tanks, which involved suiting up into our protective clothing with harnesses then climbing into the tanks, then washing them with a pressure washer and scrubbing brush.

This task involved setting up a rescue system which would enable us to get a stretcher into the tank around the stabilising bars and down to the ground and back out again in case of an incident. The task was completed in five days and the tanks were refilled with clean water, which was tested by our doctor. The system was then approved for regular use.

Jimmy and Jeff as they have exit one of the water tanks dressed in white coveralls that are mostly black with dirt and muck from carrying out tank cleaning work.
Looking at the potable and fire pump sets and piping in the tank house with the blue 90k tanks in the background.
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