Annual Fire Drill

What are these golden helmets and radio for?.. I asked my safety officer when he was busy preparing a table, for so many safety helmets. All of them are golden color. He said, Oh!! today is a fire drill. Our senior management including MD will join us. He is our fire commander. "Really!!".. I replied. Where dose he sit? My safety officer said, Oh!! he usually based in Bangkok Head Office. Oh!!! I said. "How long it takes to come to command a fire fighting here.?

There are a lot of misunderstandings about “Emergency Response Plans”

  1. Putting someone in a plan by title. Like the MD to be Emergency Commander, putting Factory Manager to be On Scene Commander, etc. These people may not available and ready to report to Emergency Command Center when the time comes. Most of the times they travel a lot.
  2. Wearing golden helmet marked ED- pretending to command through the radio make our MD look great on the photo and Video to be published on Annual Invester Report but it make your Emergency Response Plan totally fail.
  3. When writing scenarios, think about- what fire protection systems you have, When someone see a fire, the pull the alarm, where it goes? When alarm is sounded, what Emergency Response Team to react? Many company not allow to sound total plant alarm. They need approval from a very big boss in Bangkok first. And then, when alarm is sounded, people have to wait for announcement through the PA. Believe me or not, in the Emergency Command Center, there was no body at all. Funny!!.
  4. Drill is a way to test what you put in your plan. Communication, Reaction to fire, rescuing trapped personnel, calling for more help, dealing with media, etc. If you put someone name in your plan, and they do not thing during the fire drill, it is funny.
  5. I saw all of these funny things.

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