The story of Red Dog Shelters begins with its founder, Oscar Scott, who received a call in 2009 from a safety manager for an oil and gas company in Oklahoma. The safety manager was searching for someone who could design a tornado-resistant shelter that was easily mobile. Scott was the safety manager’s final stop, and he knew if anyone could design a shelter, it would be Scott. Scott has over 40 years of experience in engineering and senior management, and earned notoriety as a tornado shelter expert due to his involvement with organizations like the National Storm Shelter Association. Therefore, Scott formed Red Dog, and the Red Dog Shelter was born. With the Red Dog Shelter, Scott developed a groundbreaking, patented, rapid deployment, mobile and blast-resistant tornado shelter.
“Red Dog Shelters are unique in that they are mobile tornado shelters, and they use the force of the wind as their primary anchoring factor,” Scott said. “Using the wind to anchor a storm shelter is much more reliable than using earth anchors to hold it in place. You never have to anchor the Red Dog Shelters, which means they’re portable and reliable.”
During the development process, Scott sought the help and insight of other professionals to make sure the Red Dog Shelter met and exceeded all of the industry’s standards. Danny Brawley, founder of Brawley Petroleum Corp., assisted Scott with operations and helped spread the word about the Red Dog Shelters.
“Oscar asked me, ‘What do you do when you’re on a drilling rig and you see a tornado approaching?’” Brawley said. “Oscar didn’t like my response, and he told me the kind of shelter he was developing.”
Dick Shaw, a certified safety professional with over 40 years of experience, has also been providing safety consulting and advice to Red Dog since 2013.
“In early 2014, I joined Red Dog’s development and implementation team,” said Shaw, who is also president of Rio Grande Safety & Health LLC. “I began working with oil and gas safety professionals who establish the safety requirements for the lease or purchase of safety shelters used on their company locations. Since a Red Dog Shelter is classified as a safety product, I provided the experience needed when dealing with other safety professionals. The Red Dog Shelter is the only unit that I would stake my reputation on as a safety professional of over 40 years.”
Shaw, Brawley, Scott and others attended conferences and meetings where they exhibited the Red Dog Shelter and described its robust construction and the unique aerodynamic anchoring system. They also met with officials from FEMA and OSHA in Washington, where they presented Red Dog’s new technology to those at the highest levels.
“Our objective was to communicate this new technology to people who could recognize the potential for saving lives in remote work areas,” Shaw said. “We were fortunate to be able to share this information with top-level safety managers and executives throughout the country.”
As a result, Red Dog has grown rapidly and become widely recognized since Scott received that phone call in 2009. The company now sells and rents its shelters in seven states. Last year, with the fleet up and running, Scott turned to Mike Carmody, who took over as Red Dog’s owner/CEO.
“The Red Dog of today continues to carry on the values of Oscar and others who were involved from the very beginning,” Carmody said. “With Red Dog, the customer’s needs always come first, and we’ll do whatever we can to provide a shelter that’s a good fit for the customer.”
The Tow Dog
Red Dog recently unveiled its newest shelter: The Tow Dog. The Tow Dog has a 12-person capacity, can be pulled by truck, and can be picked up and on the move in approximately 30 seconds. With The Tow Dog, Red Dog has taken mobility of safety shelters to the next level.
“Red Dog’s new Tow Dog provides mobility as well as much-needed protection for those in refineries, workers on drilling rigs, emergency response crews and others,” Carmody said. “While smaller than The Big Dog, which has a 32-person capacity, The Tow Dog provides the benefit of mobility without sacrificing the same aerodynamic anchoring available on The Big Dog.”
Distributed through Total Safety
Red Dog is also proud to be distributed through Total Safety, which is using the company as a third-party vendor.
“Total Safety is excited to be working with Red Dog,” said Darrell Whitley, senior vice president of market development for Total Safety. “The company has packaged a lot of customer needs into one solution, and this innovation caught the attention of Total Safety. I find Red Dog has a unique product offering, and we’ve enjoyed working with them. The Red Dog Shelters are high quality, work in rough environments and have all of the blast-resistant/weather-resistant capabilities. Total Safety will continue to use Red Dog Shelters, and we are looking forward to the future and where this relationship will go.”
Industry respect
Shawn Dodge, vice president of Elite Safety Solutions, is also one of the many in the industry who have utilized Red Dog Shelters. In August 2014, Dodge took over a safety program on a pipeline project for ConocoPhillips. Red Dog served as a subcontractor for this project and provided blast-resistant shelters and customer service.
“I wish I would have known about Red Dog Shelters sooner!” Dodge said. “We had multiple units on the pipeline project south of Watkins, Colorado, in the Niobrara asset. The shelters needed to be relocated periodically as we moved along with the project. Red Dog easily executed and easily performed these tasks.”
Dodge has been working in refineries for more than 18 years. During turnarounds, start-ups and shutdowns, Dodge said there are always blast-resistant shelters on-site.
“Nobody offers what Red Dog has in terms of the science and technology,” he said. “When you’re securing a square-style, blast-resistant shelter in a refinery, you have to secure it to the ground. With Red Dog’s shelters, if there’s an explosion, it’s going to stick itself to the ground. I’m very pleased with Red Dog’s product and customer service. Everyone I talk to at Red Dog is very responsive, and I plan to continue using the company and its shelters.”
More features of the Red Dog Shelters
- Red Dog Shelters are capable of withstanding hits by a 20,000-pound Peterbilt truck being driven by an EF5 tornado.
- Their arched roofs can withstand 1 million-pound dead loads.
- They can take a 1,000-pound string of drill pipe falling from 100 feet in the air and even heavier debris being tossed by EF5 storms.
- Red Dog Shelters double as protection against domestic terrorism with unique doors that prevent unauthorized intrusion.
- Their one-half inch, A36 steel walls cannot be penetrated by common hand guns and rifles.
Various models of the Red Dog Shelters are available for lease or purchase.
For more information, visit www.RedDogShelters.com or call (806) 370-3711.
