Page 36 - OHS, April 2022

FIRE SAFETY
HowEvacuationTraining,ExercisesandDrillsCanSaveLives
Education and knowledge are critical to survival.
BY LAURIS FREIDENFELDS
On September 11, 2001, Rick Rescorla, the security director for the Morgan Stanley offices in the World Trade Center
buildings, was seated in his office on the 44th floor of Two World Trade Center. He had roughly 3,700 employees in those buildings who occupied over 22 floors of space. When he saw the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, he immediately ordered the evacuation of his staff in the south tower despite orders to the contrary.Heevencalledfortheevacuation of around 1,000 employees in WTC 5, a nine-story building near the Twin Towers.
He is credited for saving almost all of his people that day. Unfortunately, Rescorla died that terrible day and was last seen going back up the stairwell to ensure that everyone was evacuated, just as the second plane hit the north tower.
While many tell the story of his heroism in the face of danger, leading his staff down the stairs in a calm and orderly manner, their survival and success was developed before that fateful day. It was developed with the rigorous evacuation training, exercises and drills he demanded. Rescorla met resistance in scheduling these “non-productive” events, but he did it anyway. Proper planning prevents panic.
The OSHA Act of 1970, states that
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employers provide a work environment “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” In my role of leading emergency management for my organization, we took an “All Hazards Approach” to planning for emergencies. The essence of this is to create a common response plan as much as possible, regardless of the hazard. There should be no sense of competition concerning which hazard is more impactful. Fires and active shooters both kill. The biggest lessons learned from employees is that they want to feel and be “safe,” not only from fires, but from violence and other risks. Knowing what to do helps achieve that. Training, exercises, and drills make it happen.
The Difference Between Procedures and Plans
One important distinction is the difference between procedures and plans. Early in my career, we encountered an emergency that had the potential to require the evacuation of over 600 patients. We had a procedure in place at that time which stated that for this particular hazard, plan and execute an evacuation. Evacuating a hospital should be the last resort as there can be greater harm to patients during an evacuation. While we prepared for the potential to
evacuate, we took steps to mitigate the harm until the hazard was eliminated. And in the end, we avoided the need for evacuation.
In the subsequent Department of Public Health review of the incident, they were pleased with our response, except for the fact that we were cited for not following our procedure. The lesson we were taught was to develop plans that allow for critical thinking and “just in time” decisions. I was tasked with converting our procedures into more general plans, not proscriptive procedures.
In emergency management, our plans were developed to address four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. To provide a holistic approach for safety and to adhere to the all-hazards concept, our occupational safety staff (responsible for fire safety) and emergency management staff worked together. We developed plans to address evacuation measures regardless of the hazard.
These plans need to be presented to new employees as a part of their on- boarding process. OSHA will want a new employee to be prepared on day one and rightfully so.
“I am a new employee,” should not be an excuse. In a healthcare environment, patients’ lives depend on caregivers providing assistance and direction on day one. In an education setting, students as little as five years old are the responsibility of a teacher. Many times, these children will look to their teacher to save them, even on day one. In higher education schools the student population turns over a brand-new group of freshmen every year. Along with the usual hijinks, someone will likely pull a fire alarm pull station. It should be an automatic response to evacuate the classroom, not assess if it is a false alarm or real. The path to the rally location should be known on day one.
I was recently in a hotel when I heard the fire alarm annunciation and saw the strobes get activated. I started down the path to the exit when hotel staff stopped me to advise me that the fire alarm
32 Occupational Health & Safety | APRIL 2022
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