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Called the Blackline Safety Impact Awards, the first award was presented to two U.S. utility workers who saved a child’s life. The Blackline Safety Community Hero Award was awarded to Matt Overcasher and Steve Manypenny, field technicians with Columbia Gas of Ohio, at a July 29 ceremony at the utility’s training center in Gahanna, Ohio.

The Community Hero Award recognizes an individual or group that has made a profound impact on their community by going above and beyond to help save lives or protect the community from safety incidents.

Overcasher and Manypenny were on their way home from work last summer when they heard frantic screaming from a mother of an 18-month-old struggling to breathe. Using quick thinking, they pulled the emergency SOS latch on their Blackline two-way communication safety device and were able to get medical help dispatched within seconds. Communicating with an agent from Blackline’s 24/7 live Safety Operations Center throughout the incident, the duo was guided on what to do until EMS arrived on-site and revived the unconscious child.

For their heroic efforts, Overcasher and Manypenny each received a prestigious award, which also included a $10,000 donation to Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio – the winners’ charity of choice. When a child is in the hospital, as the child was in this case following the rescue, the family needs to be close. Open 365 days a year, the Ronald McDonald House helps facilitate family-centered care that fosters health and well-being for the whole family.

Columbia Gas of Ohio is a brand of NiSource Inc., one of the largest fully regulated utility companies in the U.S., serving approximately 3.5 million natural gas customers and 500,000 electric customers across six states.

While working in the utility industry involves risks – from electrocution and falls to chemical exposure, fires and explosions – workers are fully safety trained to react to incidents. Both award winners say they have experienced emergency situations before, but never one quite like this situation that involved a child.
customer confrontations, and Blackline’s award-winning G6 wearable single-gas detector, G7 personal gas detectors and G7 EXO area gas monitors—built for extremes and the toughest conditions, with GPS-enabled location tracking—provide layers of protection to ensure a critical lifeline during an emergency. Supported by Blackline Live, the company’s powerful, cloud-connected monitoring and analytics platform, the technology enables organizations to view in real time all their workers’ locations and gas readings in the field, and configure their devices, from any Internet-connected smartphone, tablet or computer, no matter how remote the location.

Blackline Safety Impact Awards will be presented annually in a variety of award categories, including customer, channel partner and environmental heroes, in addition to community heroes.