ABSTRACT
Several regulatory agencies may require you to develop emergency response plans and document them. Your facility can only use one plan to prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies that occur. Your challenge is to study all the applicable local, state, and federal regulations and produce a single workable document that is compliant. Fortunately there are some elements common to all these plans. The plan should include the following:
• An introductory section with: • A statement describing the purpose of the plan and management’s
commitment to emergency preparedness • A statement as to whether the facility will evacuate only • A statement as to whether the facility will have some form of active
emergency response, the mission, and scope of that brigade • The name and contact information of the individual to be contacted
concerning questions about the plan • The body of the document that includes at least:
• A flow chart detailing the chain of command by position titles for each type of emergency (violence, bomb threat, medical emergency, fire, Haz-Mat release)
• A site map or series of maps detailing important emergency information
• An emergency contact list of all involved employees • An emergency contact list of all agencies that participated in the
plan and have agreed to respond in the event of an emergency
• A list of communications frequencies that various responding agencies have available (ideally all agencies would have a common set of frequencies available)
• A resource contact list of agencies and companies which may be needed in the event of an emergency
• A description of each of the different types of hazards and emergency responses that were identified in the risk and vulnerability analysis
• The proper action an employee should take when confronted with each different type of emergency
• A statement describing the authority and responsibility of various agencies at each type of response identified
It is at this point that emergency response plans begin to differ from one company to another. Some companies prefer to provide detailed response guides to each specific hazard in the main emergency response plan. Other companies prefer to write very broad response guidelines to the various types of emergencies (fire, medical, hazardous materials, etc.) and refer the reader and response agencies to standard operating procedures (SOPs) developed for each target hazard identified. These tactical plans dictate duties and responsibilities for responding agencies either by specific company or in order of arrival on the scene. For example, a report of fire alarm sounding in Building C might have a line on the SOP that reads as follows:
The first arriving engine company will set up command on the southwest corner of Building C, stretch a hose line from hydrant C12 to the fire department connection, and await orders from command to charge the connection.
