Forgot your hard hat? Not wearing ear protection?

Don’t let "Granny" catch you.

Karen Hammons is safety director and environmental manager for Cind-R-Lite Block Company and Allied Building Materials, Nevada’s largest provider of material for block and brick. Hammons has been with Cind-R-Lite three years, and oversees safety for the company’s multiple locations, including an extinct volcano on 281 acres.

The all-male crew of rugged mine workers call her "Granny." It’s a title she enjoys, being the mother of five sons and 10 grandchildren, and her guys on the job get nothing less than her serious, sometimes stern efforts to make sure they stay safe.

A recent health scare made her consider how fortunate she is. While driving over Mount Potosi to visit Allied Building Material’s location in Pahrump, Hammons felt a tightness in her chest that grew into sharp, stabbing pains.

Once at the office, she asked office manager Debbie Hewitt where she could find the nearest clinic. Hewitt heard her say she was having chest pains and refused to let her drive off. Instead, she drove Hammons to the clinic and waited while a diagnosis was made. Within an hour, Hammons was airlifted out of the small community 45 miles from Las Vegas and brought to a Las Vegas hospital where she would spend the next week recovering from what proved to be a heart attack.

The outpouring of concern for the soft-spoken yet firm safety lady filled the hospital room with so many flowers that she couldn’t possible keep them all in the room. She found, "a house full of flowers," when she got home.

Less than a month later, Hammons was back on the job at Cind-R-Lite. She visited the mine to set up hearing tests for the workers, a test performed for the miners even though the mine is exempt from the same standards used in the block manufacturing facility. Hammons has the miners make the trip into town and have the tests performed anyway - it’s a sensible precaution.

"Ya’ll know how important this is," she said of the hearing test. Of course a chorus of "Huh?" and "What did you say?" greeted her when she mentioned "hearing test." It’s all in good fun and the truth is that when Karen Hammons speaks, the rough group of miners listen to what she has to say.

"My heart attack had nothing to do with stress," she said. "So I can bother you guys all I want." Hammons went over hearing safety, and made sure the guys understood the correct way to way hearing protection.

Andy Coop is Cind-R-Lite’s mine manager. A former logger, he joined Cind-R-Lite 11 years ago as an equipment operator in the block company. Today, he manages the only extinct volcano mining operation in the region. He credited Karen Hammons with being a tremendous help to him over the years. "They picked the right safety person," he said.

Karen Hammons is also in charge of safety for the company’s other locations and operations. Cind-R-Lite recently opened a new facility on Decatur near the 215 freeway. Like it’s sister facility in North Las Vegas, the manufacturing plant produces an enormous amount of block to keep the Las Vegas building boom bustling along.

Karen Hammons started working to support her five boys back in Oklahoma with a job in dispatch at Boral Brick Company. After working her way up to plant supervisor at Boral, she became loading superintendent for Acme Brick in Denton, Texas.

A rough time in a Texas tornado urged her to give two-weeks notice and move to Las Vegas where she was hired by Cind-R-Lite as "Safety Director & Environmental Manager." That was three years ago and Hammons has nothing but praise for the people she works for: Ron Yubeta, general manager and Ernie Selman, vice presidentg. Thomas Allen is Cind-R-Lite president.

"They’ve been very good to me," she said. "This is an excellent company to work for."

Apparently that goes both ways. Since Hammons has been safety director, the company has reduced out-of-pocket medical expenses some 87 percent.

Married to Dewey for 12 years, Karen Hammons has five children and 10 grandchildren.

And a bunch of miners who call her "Granny."