When we called in an emergency (via emergency phone number or fire alarm), one of our people who was trained as an emergency coordinator takes charge. All the other personnel in the building effectively report to them during the emergency. They can evacuate the building or any part of it, ask for any utilities to be turned off, or anything else. If the fire department arrives they acted as the liaison. If they needed support to do something like a clean up or moving stuff out of the way, they could “requisition” any support they needed from the normal supervisors.  The facility manager handled issues around (outside) the emergency Like clearing people away from a parking lot, dealing with the press, or arranging for places for evacuated people to stay (or go home).

Over the years these two people had different levels of assigned emergency response teams who reported to the emergency if required and drawn from all parts of the operation. Usually we had at least two trained EMT’s, an electrician (or electrical supervisor), and a piping, even an HVAC, person. (Often the building maintenance supervisor was the only one on the team and they dispatched or called in their personnel as required.) There were also usually several general emergency force personnel assigned to sweep areas during an evacuation and act a monitors to control access to areas that had been evacuated. Their role was fairly limited.

The emergency coordinator, the facilities manager, and the research management always had to communicate if the emergency lasted more than a reasonably short period (1, maybe 2 hours at most) to decide the impact.

As a person who held both roles in their career over time (facilities manager and emergency coordinator) it worked well with a good emergency coordinator. We always tried to split the two roles (coordinator and assistant) as research and facilities so both areas got knowledgeable people.

We did develop some SOP’s for things like leaking gas cylinders and non-research medical emergencies but most of the other emergencies were so unique we had limited success with them. We always hosted a session at least once per year with the local fire department where we walked them around and showed them some of the higher risk areas while explaining how we planned to deal with those issues we could identify (in general). I found that that paid rich dividends when they were called as they were much more willing to talk to us (and listen to us) before they ran in like bulls in a glassware shop.

In fairness, the system struggled to address problems that lasted over days and affected a large part of the building. Most of them were the peripheral issues (where do people go, where can they work, can they get food, etc.) as well as the need to deal with requisitioning help particularly if we had to work around the clock to fix the issue.

Richard Palluzi

BE(ChE), ME(ChE), PE, CSP,FAIChE

Pilot plant and laboratory consulting, safety, design, reviews, and training

www.linkedin.com/in/richardppalluzillc/

www.pilotplants.us

Richard P Palluzi LLC

72 Summit Drive

Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

rpalluzi**At_Symbol_Here**verizon.net

908-285-3782

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