Short answer: Use the site’s contact route to report heat illness symptoms promptly. Confusion, slurred speech, collapse or seizures require an immediate emergency response: call 911 and begin cooling while help is coming. Stay with the affected worker and give responders the exact location.
Report what you observe
OSHA’s heat first-aid guidance lists symptoms including dizziness, nausea and weakness, and serious signs such as confusion, unconsciousness and seizures. These conditions can worsen quickly.
For your own symptoms, use a direct report: “I feel dizzy and unwell in this heat. I need to stop and get help.” For a coworker, describe the behavior or symptom you actually observed and give the work location.
A useful report contains three things: the person who needs help, what you observed and where they are. Ask during the briefing how to reach the site’s response contact from your assigned area.
Recognize when the emergency response takes priority
Confusion, slurred speech, collapse or seizures are reasons to activate emergency care immediately. Call 911 and start cooling as help is coming, following the site’s emergency plan. OSHA says to cool the worker and call 911 when in doubt. Do not delay care while trying to diagnose the illness.
Have someone stay with the affected person. State the work area clearly and arrange for responders to be directed to the location. Learn beforehand who performs each role so that the crew can act quickly.
Give a clear handoff to the responders
Use a short factual description: “Worker at [exact location], observed [symptoms], help called at [time], cooling started.” The brackets are spaces for observations, rather than a script that predicts a diagnosis.
Follow the emergency plan’s assigned roles while professional help is coming. An affected worker must not be left alone.
Write the account after immediate care is underway
Record the location, time, observed symptoms, contact and response. A completed worksheet is not a prerequisite for emergency action. Keep the sequence clear: care and emergency communication first, the factual record afterward.
Prepare the heat-emergency contact route
Prepare the heat-emergency contact route
Use the briefing to establish the emergency contact, location details and response roles.
- I know how to call the site emergency contact
- I can state my work location clearly
- I know serious signs require an immediate emergency response
- I know who directs responders to the location
- I can give responders the symptoms actually observed
Record the response after care begins
After immediate care is underway, use this row to preserve the observed sequence.
After care begins: Time | Location | Observed symptoms | Contact and time | Response taken —|—|—|—|— | | | |
Choose the priority in three heat incidents
1. A coworker becomes confused and collapses in the heat. What comes first?
- A. Notify the supervisor and wait for approval before calling emergency help
- B. Call 911 and begin the emergency response and cooling
- C. Take a break and wait to see whether confusion passes
2. What information is most useful when directing help?
- A. The exact location and symptoms actually observed
- B. The site address alone, leaving the floor and access point for later
- C. The worker’s normal condition instead of the changes you saw
3. When should you complete the worksheet?
- A. Before the call so the form provides a complete incident timeline
- B. After immediate care and emergency communication are underway
- C. After personally establishing the worker’s exact medical diagnosis
Choose the priority in three heat incidents: answers
- B. Serious signs require immediate emergency action.
- A. Location and observations help responders act.
- B. The factual record follows the urgent response.
Keep the response contacts within reach. The US$19 Texas First-Year Electrical Apprentice Kit includes printable emergency-contact and heat-and-rest cards in file 15f. Fill in the emergency number, supervisor and company safety contact before the shift; file 15a also asks whom to tell if you feel unwell and what to do if that person is absent.
What should I say when I feel dizzy in the heat?
State the symptom, your location and that you need to stop and get help.
What should a coworker do while help is coming?
Follow the emergency plan, begin cooling and ensure someone stays with the affected worker.
