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Introduction to Emergency Evacuation
Getting Everybody Out When it Counts
Jim Burtles, Kristen Noakes-Fry
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eBook - ePub
Introduction to Emergency Evacuation
Getting Everybody Out When it Counts
Jim Burtles, Kristen Noakes-Fry
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About This Book
When it's not just a drill, you need to get it right the first time. If an emergency alert sounds, are you ready to take charge and get everyone out of the office, theatre, classroom, or store safely? In Introduction to Emergency Evacuation: Getting Everybody Out When it Counts, Jim Burtles explains the practical basics of understanding your site, planning escape routes, and providing for people with special needs. When minutes count, you will be ready to take action!
From 30+ years of working with organizations like yours, Burtles knows the challenges you face. He tells you what you need to know as you plan to evacuate people of all ages and health conditions – whether it's from small offices, skyscrapers, stores, industrial plants, hospitals, college campuses, or other venues. In this short book, Burtles tells you how to:
- Analyze the site, identifying escape routes and assembly areas.
- Select and train emergency response teams who will be ready to assist when needed.
- Calculate the amount of time to allow to evacuate people from different locations – using the author's own proven formula.
- Anticipate the personal needs of people who have been suddenly evacuated – from coats to transportation to medical assistance.
- Learn the needs and limitations of people with disabilities, creating personal evacuation plans for them.
- Create signage that will be effective for anyone who will be in the area – from workers to customers to visitors.
- Communicate during the emergency.
- Check and double-check to make sure nobody is left behind.
Finally, to save you time in your emergency planning, Burtles ends the book ends with a bonus comprehensive "Emergency Evacuation Checklist" containing the essentials you need to make sure your plan covers everything you need.
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Information
Part 1
Determining Evacuation Strategy
This section will help you to:
1.1 Gathering a Dimension of Environmental Data and Analyzing Necessary Information
Three Aspects of Information Gathering
Three distinct aspects, or dimensions, of information gathering are involved when you are conducting your research in connection with emergency evacuation to gain a full and rounded grasp of the subject:
Dimension of environmental data: The principal area of interest is to gain an understanding of the physical environment in which you are working. You sought to gain a thorough understanding of your surroundings in relation to the safety and movement of people. This dimension of environmental data – or knowing where you are – is all about looking and exploring.
You already have gathered a great deal of the basic environmental data as you carried out the physical risk assessment and the emergency impact analysis. We will amplify that as we survey the potential escape routes and assembly areas in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the full environment.
Dimension of population knowledge: To make the best use of this environmental knowledge, it is essential to appreciate the needs and expectations of your target population, that is, the population which resides in, works in, or visits the premises in question. What’s needed might be called “insider knowledge.” In all probability, you already know who these people are. It might even be that it was their vulnerability which triggered the thoughts of EEP in the first place. However, a number of implications and aspects may not be immediately obvious and reveal themselves only when you begin to discuss these matters with people at the site, as well as the people who help or support them. A population survey involves finding out whom you are dealing with and what might be required to help them reach a place of safety. This survey information is important because you do need detailed knowledge of their needs, limitations, and requirements in order to figure out how, when, and where they will have to go in the event of the sort of emergency which requires them to seek shelter or move away.
Dimension of education and learning: Once you have gathered this information, you get to become a subject matter expert, someone who has a basic working knowledge of such matters as techniques, regulations, and methods. You need this sort of information in order to ensure that what you propose and promote is aligned with local, national, and international legislation; standards; and good practice. This information could be called the dimension of “professional data,” which is all about knowing what other people say, do, and recommend in this connection. To gain this knowledge, you have to do some reading and remembering.
1.1.1 Site Review Process
A site review for emergency evacuation planning includes the whole of the neighborhood and the neighbors. You will need to identify any risks to people’s safety throughout their progress from their place of work to the probable points of safety. Bear in mind the likely circumstances that would trigger the emergency evacuation and the number of people involved. Many of the potential threats would apply to most, if not all, of the buildings in the immediate vicinity.
Exit Points: Pay particular attention to the exit points from the building. Locate and identify at least two emergency exits, each offering different aspects or escape routes. Ideally, people should be able to exit in any direction, i.e., through a front, rear, or side exit. Where appropriate, each exit point should be equipped with a stout canopy or covered walkway to protect people from falling debris as they move away from the building.
Have a checklist ready when you are carrying out such a survey, especially if this is your first attempt, since it is easy to overlook some of the clues. There can be good clues and bad clues in the sense that some of them might reveal good news while others may suggest areas for improvement or even places to avoid.
Safe Spaces: The second object of the site review is to identify a number of safe spaces to be considered as potential emergency assembly areas. Your goal is to locate two types of assembly areas: internal refuges and safe open spaces.
Once you have identified some safe spaces, plot some safe escape routes from the exit points to the external assembly areas. Identify at least two alternative routes to each assembly area in order to avoid unexpected crowds, obstacles, or additional dangers. Ideal escape routes avoid straight lines because corners provide protection.
Safer Indoors or Outdoors? “To flee or not to flee: that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler to stay behind and suffer the slings and arrows of fortune or to take a chance amidst a sea of rubble?” Hamlet clearly had a dramatic moment and was unable to make up his mind. In an emergency situation you have no time for introspection or speeches – you must decide and act accordingly without delay.
Establish whether your building can be considered as a safe refuge in the event of an emergency. If there is enough really safe space within the building, then invacuation is one of the options with the advantage that people need not expose themselves to any external dangers as they escape. This option has to be balanced against the possibility of being trapped inside the building. Clearly, if there is sufficient notice of the impending danger, then complete evacuation to a remote assembly area is the preferred strategy.
If the warning period is uncertain or very brief, then risks are associated with an evacuation. The event may occur while some or all of the staff are still en route.Making the best decision at the earliest moment is a key consideration in developing your decision process.
1.1.2 Assembly Area Requirements
To identify the correct assembly areas, begin by establishing the needs, requirements, and expectations of the evacuation crowd at the individual and group level.
Before you start the search for suitable assembly areas, establish the required characteristics so that you are able to recognize an appropriate area when you see it. Here we shall be describing the ideal assembly area, although you may have to compromise. Unfortunately, we all have to live and work within the environment as it exists rather than the ideal over-optimistic world in which everything is always available and nothing ever goes wrong.
Find a location that will safely and satisfactorily accommodate your population for hours at a time and at short notice.
The first thing you must establish is the amount of space that will be required, which is determined by the size and type of that population. It should be relatively easy to estimate the total number of people who are likely to be present when an evacuation is deemed necessary. You should take into account the possibility of visitors and passers-by swelling the numbers in the crowd; so err on the side of caution when it comes to determining the size of your potential assembly areas.
We suggest that you should aim for a ratio of one person per square meter (or 10.7 square feet) wherever people are expected to be able to move around in relative comfort. If this is unachievable, we suggest the population density might be safely doubled which means up to two persons per square meter (or 10.7 square feet).
People with special needs may require more space than this. For example, people who are in wheel chairs will require an absolute minimum of 1 square meter (or 10.7 square feet) each, which is actually quite cramped. Preferably, you should allow 1.5 to 2 square meters (at least 20 square feet) for each wheelchair-bound person in order to allow the person to maneuver easily and safely. The best way to establish the space and other requirements of those with special needs is to talk to them or whoever is responsible for looking after them.
Once you know the size and constituency of the evacuating crowd, calculate the amount of space required to form an assembly area. If you find no spaces large enough to accommodate the full crowd, consider multiple simultaneous assembly areas, which could lead to the additional problem of organizing and managing the various flows of people to prevent confusion and accidental overcrowding.
Apart from a space of the right dimensions to hold the right number of people, an assembly area must have a number of other characteristics, which will become apparent when you survey the potential sites and the associated escape routes. Looking at these other characteristics is the next step.
Escape Route Survey: During this stage of the EEP program, you will be exploring the various ways and means by which people can reach safety in the event of an emergency situation. You need to explore two interrelated areas in your survey:
You have assessed the assembly area requirements in terms of capacity and characteristics. Now you must investigate and compare those s...