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Emergency response planning requires a detailed risk or vulnerability analysis. Completing a risk assessment provides you a scope of your organization’s current situation and allows you to develop a master plan to address the needs of your site. Risk analysis should be used to develop emergency response plans and used as the basis for designing mass notification systems (MNS).
The importance of risk assessments has influenced international code councils and other organizations to create regulatory codes. The International Facilities Code (IFC), International Building Code (IBC), and the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA 1 and NFPA 10, now include requirements to conduct risk assessments for certain occupancies to determine if MNS is required.
Distribution of information, the role that mass notification systems play in an emergency, is part of this risk assessment. Other elements that can be determined from the assessment include what MNS layers (in-building, wide-area or distributed recipient) should your organization have in place in order to communicate to your people, should the systems be integrated, and what are the emergency response plan processes and procedures.
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The following questions should be considered when developing plans for your organization’s emergency communications systems.
Who do you need to communicate to in an emergency? Emergency responders, employees, contractors, visitors and guests, surrounding community, the media?
What are the types of emergencies or events that can impact your organization? List the events that could occur, including natural hazards, human-caused whether intentional or accidental, and technical incidents (i.e. fire, explosion, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, HAZMAT spill, terrorism, workplace violence, utility outage, supplier failure) and the likelihood of the occurrence (i.e. very likely to occur, not likely).
What is the urgency of the event? Is it happening now and does it represent immediate danger? Has it already occurred or likely to occur in the immediate future?
How will the event impact your facility? What is the expected severity of the event?
Where is the event located? Which buildings does it affects? Will it affect critical infrastructure?
How will you validate the emergency? Has it been confirmed or investigated?
Who should receive the message? And where are they located? Do you need to send a message to the entire city, campus-wide, a single building, a floor of the building, or specific people who may be located off-campus?
What specific instructions do you need to send? i.e. Shelter in place in a specific location, stay away from the windows or other personnel actions.
Although not all of the above questions will apply to every mass notification system or event that occurs, it is important to note that in an emergency, time is of the essence. Responses must be immediate, simple to understand, and deliberate.
Resources
There are numerous resources to help guide you through a risk assessment, including NFPA 1600® Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs, NFPA 1620 Standard for Pre-Incident Planning, and DHS Risk Management Fundamentals. Excerpts from this document were taken from NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code & Handbook, 2013 Edition.
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