ARTICLE: IMPORTANT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DEFINITIONS

Safety Management

Measures taken to prevent accidents and incidents at a plant, facility or other location. Normally managed through the implementation of a Safety Management System.

Emergency Response

Measures controlled by an Emergency Manager in response to accidents and incidents that require mobilization of specific emergency response teams or assets (building, medical, fire, well control, helicopter, technical, marine, etc.).

Emergency Response Plan

A document providing Emergency Management guidelines, including incident specific check lists, that detail the necessary steps that an Emergency Manager and his/her support staff must take in an emergency or combination of emergencies within or related to a facility or other organization.

It is important to note that an Emergency Manager and his/her support staff cannot be expected to remember all procedures during stressful situations. Therefore, as an emergency develops, incident specific check lists provide the basis upon which the Emergency Manager and his/her support staff ensure adequate and necessary steps are taken to protect and save life as-well as the facility or location that has experienced the incident. As an example, an oil and gas installation offshore (Onshore facilities such as industrial sites, office complexes, schools, etc, will also have specific checklists specific to their organization and the types of emergencies that they may be required to face) may include, but may not be limited to, checklists and procedures to manage:

Loss of Well Control.

Gas Release (Non H2S).

Gas Release (H2S).

Process Related Fire and/or Explosion.

Fire in Accommodations.

Helicopter Ditching at sea.

Helicopter Crash on Helideck.

Surface or Subsurface Pipeline incident.

Precautionary downmanning (Helicopter, Vessel, Lifeboat, etc.).

Abandonment (Helicopter, Vessel, Lifeboat, etc.).

Injured personnel (Medical Evacuation by Boat and by Helicopter).

Missing personnel.

Man overboard.

Loss of communications.

Loss of primary and/or secondary evacuation and muster stations.

Stressed Personnel.

Loss of essential facilities.

Loss of key personnel.

Rapidly developing situation leading to information overload.

Loss of mooring.

Extreme weather conditions.

Collision.

Wave damage causing structural collapse.

Loss of stability.

Bomb Threat.

Sabotage.

Oil Spill.

Radioactive Materials Release.

Non related, simultaneous emergencies.

Earthquake.

Emergency Management / Command and Control

The style of leadership and command presence demonstrated by an Emergency Manager and his/her support team which, when implemented effectively, allow for the development of tactical strategies based upon a sound understanding of the situation and available resources capable of saving or preventing further loss of life.

Emergency Managers and their support staff, while technically competent, are not born with Emergency Management / Command and Control skills and must, therefore, be trained in order to manage major emergencies under stressful situations.

However, Emergency Management / Command and Control skills are only effective in circumstances where the Emergency Manager has Command authority to take independent decisions without consultation with personnel not on-scene and experiencing the emergency. This is critical when, in his/her opinion, the lives of personnel and the integrity of the facility or other location are at risk.

The Financial cost of managing an emergency should never receive higher priority than the protection of human life.

Command and Control Team (Generic Example)

The Emergency Manager and a team of specific personnel who, during an emergency, assemble in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in order to assess the situation, manage personnel, make notifications, and implement the tactical decisions of the Emergency Manager subject to his or her understanding of the situation.

Generically, this can include the following personnel:

Emergency Manager in the Position of Person in Command.

Deputy Emergency Manager to assist the Emergency Manager.

Facility Engineer / Complex Manager who can communicate with fire and medical teams.

Muster Coordinator to receive and track information related to personnel.

Communications specialist to liaise with external response agencies, vessels, and aircraft, etc.

To ensure information is remembered when received into the EOC without the need to ask questions, a series of information boards are utilized to capture critical information. Generically, these can include:

Weather data (Wind Direction, Sea State, Temperature, etc.).

Process and Emergency Equipment Status (Depressurization, Well, Fire Pump, Deluge, etc.).

Muster Count (Personnel at Muster Stations, Personnel Missing, etc.).

Logistics related to the position and location of critical aircraft, vessels, vehicles, etc. (Location, Estimated Time of Arrival and Departure, Configuration for Casualties, Winching Capability, etc.).

Emergency Managers focus (High level strategies set by the Emergency Manager for managing the emergency and personnel).

Events Board to record sequentially the series of events and their time.

Pictograph (Diagram of the facility showing location of fire/incident, primary and secondary evacuation routes, trapped personnel, fire teams, medical teams, wind direction, evacuation systems, etc.).