Emergency Preparedness – How prepared are you?

Emergency preparedness and response is a requirement of BS OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001, as well as common place in any business through items such as first aid procedures and the most common of all fire safety procedures. So when it comes to emergency preparedness and response, how prepared are businesses?

Recently a fire drill in a building I was present at was planned, a common element as mentioned in most businesses and buildings and one that is common to be involved in by most people i.e. everyone in the building evacuating when required. The message went around that a fire drill was planned and if any pregnant or less abled body persons where going to be in the building to inform security so they can be assisted out before the drill; this drew me to ask the question of how these would in the event of fire be expected to leave the building. The answer was to stay in the office location and tell someone to inform the incident coordinator, I pointed out that this was not the solution and that these persons could be directed into a fire escape, that should provide 30 minutes refuge (presuming the fire escape itself does not have its compartmentation breached i.e. doors on levels left open; although commonly these are pretty sterile areas the risk from smoke is still present.

The drill took place and it was clear to see security of the building and other persons involved had all been briefed prior this was happening with directions to fire points and it seemed to take place, without too much of an hiccup; ignoring the fact security made people stand in the road area as an assembly point which blocked the fire appliances getting to the building. Everyone re-occupied the building and the day continued, tick in the box achieved for a fire drill being conducted.

Only a matter of hours passed and the building shook not once but twice, an earthquake had taken place elsewhere and the country I was in felt the tremor, puzzled faces existed on what to do. A decision was made in which to evacuate the building as a precaution, although I do not want to debate the rights and wrongs of this approach. Suddenly security staff looked puzzled, they were unsure what to do, no alarm was raised in the building and the incident from an outsider’s point of view was not being managed very well. It proved a feeling I have always had. That is, it is too easy to plan for an emergency, to have procedures and to think you are prepared and perhaps have a false sense of security. This was a situation only hours after such a test, unplanned and yet was a complete mess; lack of understanding and lack of communication were very much present. How could this be? My thoughts for cause of failure are plans are written and are not sufficiently tested or the quality of such testing of plans is not to a good enough standard, purely lip service maybe only being paid to such an important element. The plans themselves may additionally not be well communicated and key employees for managing an incident not identified or appropriately trained.

Back to my question really and how many companies really are prepared for responding to emergencies? I have seen over the years drills, after drills conducted and really are they worth anything, so some of my own thoughts are below, feel free to comment and add.

1. Tell as few people as possible about the drill, you want to use the drill to monitor not just your procedures working but the actual human interaction. The best example of this was a position when I was responsible for taking command of an emergency situation and I was not informed of the fire drill in advance.
2. Keep them fresh. Use methods to make tweaks to the drills and create possible scenarios, these could be as simple as blocking off a fire exit due to a fire in corridor (use someone stood there pointing out that they are representing the fire).
3. Speak to your local fire authority and see if they would be interested in using your premises as drill for their own staff. You can in some scenarios look to use artificial smoke to give some realism to the scenario as well, works an absolute treat.
4. Ensure a process for utilising any lessons learnt as this what the drills are for and can ensure they perform to their best when needed. Lives could depend on it!
5. Don’t just focus on fire in emergency preparedness, I have covered that more in depth as these are a common theme but running exercises for any emergency preparedness, involving other services that may be involved (if they are interested) and adding some realism will make a difference.
6. Ensure good communication to all involved after the event, the purpose, what went well and what didn’t go so well and why.
7. If you have less abled bodies persons or those who may be more at risk in a building i.e. deaf and would not hear an alarm, then ensure you have arrangements for this. Normally completed through a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan).
8. Think about your business risk resilience. Are you prepared to continue your business operation after such an event, what would happen if your office was burnt down? Would you be prepared as business. So ensure you have risk resilience and business continuity plans in place.
9. Ensure training is provided to employees conducting roles in such emergency procedures, more importantly that it is suitable and sufficient.