Skylights: the risk you can't see from the ground

Yolanda Carrasco is Head of Quality, Health & Safety and Environment at Luxsolaris.

In July 2022, on a warehouse roof in Alcantarilla (Murcia), a colleague who had been with us for three weeks stepped on a dust-covered skylight. He fell 3.2 metres, broke a wrist and two ribs, and was back at work four months later. We were lucky.

The next day we stopped all roof work across the company for 24 hours. What came out of that day is what we now call the Altura Cero (Zero Height) plan.

Why skylights are so dangerous

• You can't see them from the ground. With dust, moss or paint, an aged polycarbonate skylight looks like metal sheet.
• They hold for a while. Many bear the weight of someone standing still, then break when they walk or put down a 25 kg module.
• The fall happens in the middle of the roof, not at the edge where everyone is looking.

What we do now

1. Inventory from the air. On every warehouse survey, the drone maps every skylight. The crew leader arrives on site with that map.
2. No skylight is ever stepped on. Not protected ones, not new ones, not "the strong ones". No exceptions.
3. Collective protection first: nets or mesh under skylights in the work area, or rigid bolted covers.
4. Marked walkways for moving across the roof.
5. Lifeline and harness always, even with collective protection in place.
6. "The fifteen": a 15-minute talk at the foot of the ladder, every day, on every site. Point one: where the skylights are.

Training on a real roof

At our Sant Boi practice centre there is a metal roof with real skylights four metres off the ground. Every new installer walks on it, anchored, with nets below, before setting foot on a job. Seeing up close how hard it is to spot a dirty skylight is worth more than any slide.

The results

Since 2022 our lost-time injury frequency rate has fallen from 21.4 to 9.8. There has not been a single fall through a skylight since Alcantarilla.

The goal is zero. That's why the plan has that name.