Our Blog

Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons when Ned Flanders is discussing the difference between apple cider and apple juice? Homer’s brain floats away saying, “You can stay but I’m leaving.” We can all relate. When our brains get bored, we zone out. That’s why, at Lewis, we’re learning a situational awareness tool called “scan and focus.”

An interesting pattern emerged when we began analyzing close call data at Lewis Tree Service. When considering frequency, we learned that line of fire—by vehicle—has as much serious injury potential as struck-by, tree-related incidents. Yet, if you studied just our incident data, that picture would not emerge.

In 1907, a children’s book was published entitled, Jim: Who Ran Away from His Nurse, and Was Eaten by a Lion. Sounds frightening, right? The author, Hilaire Belloc, knew that there are two ways to learn: the hard way, through trial and error, and the easy way, through storytelling and learning from other’s mistakes.

“It was 4:30 in the afternoon on nice, sunny day. Our crew had performed regular trimming on multiple oak trees around a three phase and was stacking brush while getting ready to shut down for the day. One of the crew members went to remove the drop zone cones when all the sudden he heard the sound of a limb slam on the ground. The employee was...

Note: This article was originally published by the Resilience Engineering Association.

Asher Balkin is a Research Engineer at the Cognitive Systems Engineering Laboratory at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Asher has worked in fields as diverse as public health, international security, surgical research, and human/automation interaction.

In early February, a two-day Total Safety Culture training meeting was held in Division 15, South Florida.

The following text and images were sent to us from a homeowner in Clearwater, FL, and feature the utility line clearance crews from Division 16. Please join us as we welcome Shirley, our second guest blogger! Enjoy. 

In December, Division 45 celebrated the retirement of Mike Locy, Safety Specialist. The safety team gave him a fishing rod and reel for his retirement. Division 45, with Shawn Jones, presented Mike with a chainsaw and a hardhat signed by all. 

After 35+ years, we congratulate Bernie Kelly on his retirement from the LEWIS family of companies. Although there were many wonderful speeches from the senior executives during the farewell luncheon, following is the tribute from Tom Rogers, CEO. 

Humble, kind, caring, cheerful, intelligent, pure in heart, salt of the earth, encouraging,...