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Special Emergency Protocols for High-Rise Buildings |
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Mass evacuation of a high-rise building may not be the prudent course of action in an emergency. In fact, it can be deadly.
On Friday, October 17, 2003, an intense but localized fire at the Cook County Administration Building in Chicago, IL, killed six people. Eight others were injured in the blaze. Individuals evacuating the building were trapped in stairwells as the doors on each floor were locked. This tragedy illustrates the need for high rise building owners, operators, and their tenants to train employees to respond to a wide range of emergencies and to have processes in place that continually improve their emergency response plans.
“ERPs are the law. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) requires facilities with more than 10 employees to have a written emergency plan. Whatever the size or type of your organization, top management support and the involvement of all employees is essential.”
Effective Emergency Response Plans, National Safety Council
Mass evacuations of high rise buildings are not always the most prudent course of action, and emergency response plans must reflect that fact. High rise building operators must be able to monitor building fire and life safety systems and respond promptly and appropriately. Knowledgeable staff must be able to communicate with building occupants to inform them of evacuation or shelter-in-place procedures specific to the nature and location of any threat within the building. They also need to be able to manipulate building ventilation and other systems to control the spread of smoke or any airborne hazards.
The building operator's emergency response team must coordinate with all tenants to ensure plans are properly implemented. Plans must be coordinated with local law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services, so they can develop tactical plans specific to the building. Federal, state, and/ or local codes and regulations require periodic training and drills. Failure to exercise plans is the most common cause of inadequate response.
Lastly it is imperative that occupants understand their emergency plans and the proper response to such an emergency. While owners and operators can ensure they have plans in place, occupants need to take an ownership in understanding where the key emergency exits are located and what they will do before an emergency.
When assessing their readiness to respond to an emergency, building owners and managers need to be asking themselves:
- Do I know all of the credible threats that face my building?
- Do I have an emergency response plan that adequately addresses all major risks? Is my staff organized and properly trained to carry out the plans?
- Has my plan been coordinated with local fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical service organizations? Have these agencies developed pre-incident plans for my building?
- Do I have the in-house expertise needed to properly conduct training exercises?
- What should I do to communicate with employees, tenants, suppliers, customers, and the general public for the many different scenarios including acts of terrorism?
- If I have a fire or other disaster, how do I determine, measure, and document my economic losses to maximize my insurance recovery?
- How can I adequately recover damages incurred outside of the insurance contract?
Proper training of high-rise residents is probably the most important factor in saving lives. “The reality is what's going to save people's lives is having gone through some training. When the actual event happens, it's too late to tell people what to do,” said Howard Safir, former New York City police commissioner.
The Wall Street Journal, 9/4/03
There are a variety of resources that high rise building owners can leverage to help them prepare for, mitigate, and quickly recover from a disaster. These include:
Property Risk Consulting — Through proven assessment and evaluation, provides property protection solutions covering a wide range of risk issues, including security, fires, natural hazards, and explosions.
Business Continuity Planning — A process that systematically identifies critical business and IT processes and strategies that can help a company stay in business in the event of a severe disruption to operations.
Emergency Response Planning — Helps companies assess and design an effective capability to respond to potential threats including fires and explosions, terrorism, natural hazards, hazardous material spills, and utility outages.
Strategic Risk Communications — Provides timely and appropriate information to reassure different audiences — including employees, shareholders, clients, analysts, the media, vendors, and the public — that you are effectively managing related challenges.
Forensic Accounting and Claims Services — Assists in all aspects of measuring and documenting property damage, business interruption, and extra expense damages. Also helps establish processes and accounting protocols to track loss-related costs and expenditures, determines initial damage estimates, and assists throughout the entire loss measurement process.
Claims Consulting — Provides pre-loss valuation, property damage, contents and time element calculation, claim preparation, business interruption and extra expense, fidelity and stock loss claim calculations, and appraisals.
Property Claims — Helps companies navigate through a property loss, from reporting the claim, collecting loss data, quantifying damages, and policy/coverage interpretation through settlement.
“Communication between building owners/operators and emergency responders is essential to ensure that respective roles are clearly understood.”
Guide to Strengthen Emergency Management of High-Rise and High-Risk Buildings, Office of the Fire Marshal, Ontario, CA, 4/10/02
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us.
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