Page 42 - Occupational Health & Safety, December 2018

FIRE & EMERGENCY TRAINING
Training Employees to Recognize and Respond to Hazards
BY KAREN D. HAMEL Emergency Action and Fire Prevention Plans establish frameworks for responding to work- place emergencies. But without training, em- ployees cannot be expected to know what is written in those plans, which hazards they could face,
or how to respond to emergency situations.
In an emergency, it can be hard to predict how employees will react. Training helps to increase pre- dictability by giving employees the information that they need to make better decisions and react to emergencies faster. From determining whether they should evacuate or shelter in place to knowing who is in charge during an emergency and who can talk to reporters, the better trained that employees are to follow emergency procedures, the better the odds for
a safe outcome.
Workplace Hazards
Fires are one example of a potential workplace haz- ard that all facilities must plan for and for which they must provide training for their workforces. Because most primary and secondary schools have fire drills, by the time people enter the workforce, they can al- ready associate hearing an alarm with evacuating the building. However, they still need to be taught how to navigate evacuation routes, where to go after they are out of the building, and whom to report to.
Facilities also must be prepared for medical emer- gencies and, if they handle chemicals, how to respond to spills. Some facilities may have other hazards, such as explosive or toxic gasses, that require more ad- vanced preparations and procedures.
Additional hazards also may need to be ad- dressed, such as preparing for tornadoes, hurri- canes, or other natural weather disturbances. Unfor- tunately, they also need to be taught how to handle situations involving workplace violence or terroristic events, for this is also a necessity. Plans should be in place and employees should be trained to respond appropriately to each of the scenarios that is appli- cable to their workplace, which could mean training everyone not only to evacuate, but also to shelter in place and how to lock down areas.
Alarms and Alerts
Visual and auditory alarms are purposely designed to draw attention. They can alert production employees of a processing line that is going to start moving. They can warn pedestrians that a forklift is backing up or entering an intersection. They can let everyone in the area know that someone just came in the back door.
Employees need to be taught to recognize the various sounds and lights that are used as warnings.
If multiple types of alarms and signals are used, each should be distinctive enough that it does not cause confusion as to its meaning. They also should be shown where pull alarms are located and when to use them to alert others of an emergency.
In addition to traditional alarms, many facilities now also use additional alerting methods, such as text messaging and audible alerts that provide vocal instructions in emergencies. This is especially helpful because they can provide specific information and as- sist with communication gaps. It also can hasten the speed of evacuations, because studies performed by the American Psychological Association have shown that without additional information, some people will ignore alarms or hesitate before evacuating until they either see the source of the danger or have enough in- formation to motivate them to leave their area.
Evacuation Procedures
When people do finally decide to evacuate, they will instinctively exit the same way that they typically en- ter the building. This is true even when exit routes are well marked and when they provide a more direct route out of the building. Part of this has to do with the habit that is formed by entering the same way each day, but subconsciously, most people are reluctant to use an unfamiliar route, especially in an emergency.
Training and regular drills that force people to use a variety of exit routes can help to overcome the un- certainty about where an exit route is located or where it may lead and will help to avoid one exit being over- whelmed during evacuations. Theatres in New York City successfully practice this concept daily, whether they or their patrons realize it or not. Everyone enters through the front doors of the theatre before Broadway shows begin. However, after each show, ushers guide everyone in the audience to the building exit that is nearest to them, which is often not the same way they entered. This is primarily done to help get everyone out of the building more quickly, but it also helps to minimize congestion in one or two hallways and in an emergency would facilitate faster evacuations.
Employees should practice using primary and al- ternative routes to evacuate from their workstations as well as from conference rooms, cafeterias, and other areas of the building. They also should be taught to instruct visitors about the facility’s evacuation proce- dures and, if an evacuation is necessary, to provide as- sistance with getting them to rally points.
Shutdown and Response Procedures
When an emergency alarm sounds, a majority of employees may be able to immediately evacuate the
38 Occupational Health & Safety | DECEMBER 2018
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