Drafting an Emergency Response Plan

The purpose of an emergency response policy is to provide a framework to the various sites a company may have to prepare for emergency situations. In order to be ready to deal with all expected emergencies appropriately, should they occur, it is essential to have a written plan in order to ensure the safety of employees, contractors and visitors.

In order to prepare properly for an emergency it is important to understand what is meant by this term. An emergency can be explained as a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence or set of circumstances demanding immediate action to prevent human injury or ill-health, damage to property, damage to the environment.

This goal can be achieved by identifying responsibilities and tasks in advance and ensure a suitable and sufficient plan to respond to all the significant emergencies that may occur on the sites.

A policy should apply to all company functional divisions, business units, affiliates and subsidiary companies, including contractors, sub-contractors and visitors. The policy document normally provides guidance on preparing a plan for emergency preparedness to these entities.

The objective of the emergency response plan is to provide mobilization and quick actions to control an emergency scenario and minimize the impact on people, plant, production processes and the environment.

When drafting an emergency response plan the principal considerations to take into account is to ensure that, in case of an emergency, the following items are taken care of in the policy:

• Rescue and medical care provisions to injured persons.
• Prevention strategy for the spread of the emergency.
• Arrangements for the protection of property already involved from increased damage.
• Plans to minimize the environment impact arising due to release or spillage of chemicals and other materials that can have a negative impact on the environment.
• Coordination of any outside help during emergency with Mutual aid organisations.
• Arrangements to respond to significant incidents at neighbouring facilities that have the potential to affect the organization or site.

In addition to the above it is important to include a requirement for the following issues in the policy:

• Hazard Identification and Risk Assessments as well as vulnerability assessments of specific sites.
• Site Emergency Response Manual. To ensure prompt effective action to reduce losses likely to result from possible emergency situations, all the emergencies, for which there is a reasonable probability of occurrence, should be contained in a comprehensive Site Emergency Procedures Manual that is specific to each Area / Job Site / Project. For a basic manual template follow this link.
• Roles and Responsibilities. A clear and unambiguous explanation of the roles and responsibilities of all activities should be included.
• Mutual Aid Agreements. The inclusion of the company specific requirement for each site to ensure that there is a formal mutual aid agreement in place with suitable organizations that could include formal mutual aid structures.
• Emergency Drills. The requirement for emergency response drills, including the criteria for determining the frequency and content of the drills should be included.
• Alarm Systems. A description of the alarm system, including a procedure to ensure that all employees are properly familiarized with all 'Alarm Systems' should be included as a standard.
• Incident Command System. The policy should include a requirement that every incident must have a written incident action plan. The purpose of this plan is to provide all incident supervisory personnel with direction for actions to be implemented during the operational period identified in the plan.
• Incident Facilities including an Incident Command Post, Staging Areas and a requirement for a base.
• Integrated Communications. The use of a common communications plan is essential to ensuring that responders can communicate with one another during an incident. The outlines of the communication plan and its requirements are an essential part of the policy.
• Transfer of Command. All emergency response plans should contain an explanation of the transfer of command. This requirement should be clearly defined in the policy.
• Mobilization. Managing resources safely and effectively is the most important consideration at an incident. This should form the basis for the mobilization requirements that is included in the policy.
• Site Emergency Response Manual. In order to standardize, a framework for the plan should be included in the of the policy.
• Declaring Emergencies. A standardized system and criteria should be defined to declare emergencies. There should also be clear and unambiguous systems and responsibilities in place to elevate the emergency to a higher level or to declare the return to normality state.

It is the responsibility of all employees to become familiar with the plan, with emphasis on their individually allocated roles contained in the plan that they should fulfil during an emergency.

The incident command system, which is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazard incident management concept that allows its users to adopt an integrated organizational structure to match the complexities and demands of single or multiple incidents without being hindered by operational structures, is a good concept to include in the policy as a requirement.

The efficient functioning of a well thought trough emergency response plan will save valuable time and assets in case of serious emergency and will result in minimum adverse effects.

It is a proven fact that that through drills and training exercises the response to real emergencies will be more effective. Drills also provide an opportunity to evaluate the plan as well as the emergency organizational structure for its effectiveness and readiness to handle an emergency.

© Carl Marx 2009