If you’re looking for roofing safety information, you’ve come to the right place. The following is a true story…

The only good thing about a fall is the raw, terrifying fear of death usually passes quickly. Falling off the roof of a house is over in a split second. But falling from 24 stories is another matter…

It happened on a new condominium being built on the south tip of the crescent-shaped beach on Marco Island, Florida. The fall victim was a young roofer, who had not yet learned one of the basics: You don’t step onto a metal roof when it’s wet. Not even a little wet, like it was that morning before the dew had evaporated in the rising sun.

Unlike some such stories, this one had a happy ending. A sharp superintendent named Rick Blusiewicz, (We call him Rick Blue) was on site. He is committed to roofing safety and had insisted the men wear their safety harnesses, despite their reluctance to do so.

The terrified young man fell just six feet off the roof before the rope and harness did its job, saving his life. The rest of the crew pulled him back up to safety. He was shook up of course, but he was OK. Death would have to wait for another day.

My point in telling you this story is that roofing safety rules really can save your life. Many roofers like myself hate wearing safety harnesses… but they are too important to ignore. We need to just figure them as the price we have to pay for the life we’ve chosen.