I was emergency force coordinator at a large research site for years. We agreed that fire alarms were blunt instruments and often chose different, more measured responses because we had a trained on site group that responded immediately.

I was also in graduate and undergraduate school where several accidents occurred and fire alarms were not used. The response via phone from the security personnel was always well meaning but uniformly slow, usually not very useful, and in two cases resulted in significant delays in responding to serious incidents.

I honestly thing the discussion (land lines, versus cells versus fire alarms) is less relevant than a discussion as to what happens when the emergency is reported (by whatever means). I like fire alarms whenever a train, on site response team is lacking since the fire department, in general, know what to do. (Or at least, at worst< how to keep people safe even if they are over reacting a bit.) Most schools and many industrial organizations lack this type of trained team and rely on untrained (or poorly trained) personnel, who are not always available, without anyone in charge what really knows what to do. We actually had some emergencies identified in advance, that required the fire department or an evacuation or both be called immediately without any judgment allowed. And yes I sometimes had to apologize to the fire department (who never ever complained) and got beaten up by management but no one get hurt worse.

My two cents.

Richard Palluzi
PE, CSP

Pilot plant and laboratory consulting, safety, design,reviews, and training
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Richard P Palluzi LLC
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-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> On Behalf Of Ralph Stuart
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2023 5:46 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Phones in research labs

> >I have to disagree. Fire alarms are blunt instruments. There can be and are emergency situations that do not require dumping an entire building, and where doing so can only add to the problem. Most common is a medical emergency, where you need to get specialists IN quickly to a specific location.

I agree with this sentiment - fire alarms are blunt instruments. But emergencies are also.

Whether dumping the building makes the situation worse will depend on how large and diverse the building is - I have experienced those situations as well. This is where the local emergency planning, training and coordination process become so important. Too often, institutions rely on the training people get in kindergarten to "Never Touch a Fire Alarm!” to avoid dumping the building, but this also can lead to SOS calls that come in much later than is optimal.

Here at a small liberal arts college, I am able to provide training goes beyond that; it is much more difficult on more complex campuses or in larger buildings. In emergencies, like PPE, one size does not fit all.. ;)

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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