EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICES

The staff at Emergency Management Services are experts in emergency planning and operational management. We provide a range of services to ensure your compliance with relevant legislative and industry based standards, including the review and development of Emergency Management Plans.

EMS reviews Emergency Management Plans to ensure that they comply with Australian Standard 3745-2010 with clear and concise information that is easy for the Emergency Control Organisation to maintain and manage in the event that an incident occurs.

EMS will engage with your representative to come up with the best approach for Emergency Management plan review, design and/or development to fit your business' requirements. This may include an onsite visit and complimentary consultation regarding overall compliance requirements, if required.

Other services related to Emergency Planning compliance include: 

• Emergency Response Training including facilitated evacuations against a variety of risk based scenarios
• Review and development of Evacuation Diagrams
• Implementation of procedures, including desk based flipcharts identifying Emergency Colour Codes

Further information on the requirements for Evacuation Diagrams can be found within the Australian Standard 3745-2010 but are summarised below for your reference:

When producing the emergency plan for your premises there are a number of things that must be considered.

Section 3 of the Australian Standard AS 3745 - 2010 calls for the production and implementation of the emergency plan, along with providing a guideline to its production, covering considerations and processes that must be reviewed throughout the process.

3.1 GENERAL An emergency plan shall be developed and maintained for each facility.
The emergency plan shall document the organisational arrangements, systems, strategies and procedures relating to the response and management of emergencies. The EPC in collaboration with the facility owners, managers, occupiers and employers shall determine which types of emergencies warrant specific emergency response procedures within the emergency plan (see Clause 3.2). The EPC, ECO, the management of the facility and nominated staff shall participate in the implementation and maintenance of the emergency plan, as appropriate to their role within the organization.

Maintenance and review of the emergency plan shall be in accordance with Section 8.

NOTES:
1 Advisors for the emergency planning process should hold recognized qualifications/ competencies in a relevant discipline.
2 Where security officers occupy or are engaged by a facility, their security operating procedures/site instructions should reflect, and be consistent with the emergency plan.
3 The EPC should consider its emergency plan in conjunction with all emergency plans/procedures developed by neighbouring facilities and other relevant agencies, for example, local municipal council and Emergency Services. The use and location of the facility may determine how the EPC will integrate its procedures with those developed by other agencies.
4 Consideration should be given to developing the emergency plan in conjunction with appropriate specialist advice, including advice on provisions for occupants with a disability.

The emergency plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Emergency prevention (see Clause 1.4.12).
(b) Emergency preparedness (see Clause 1.4.11).
(c) Emergency mitigation (see Clause 1.4.8).
(d) Activities for preparing for, and prevention of emergencies, such as training, and maintenance.
(e) Overall control and coordination arrangements for emergency response (see Section 4). This shall include evacuation strategies for occupants with a disability.
(f) The agreed roles and responsibilities of the emergency control organization and occupants of the facility in preparation for, during and after an emergency.

Further detailed below are the requirements and processes for identifying and analysing or conducting a risk assessment on potential emergencies for the site. This allows us to determine which emergencies are more likely and where the emergency should rate in the emergency planning process.

3.2 EMERGENCY IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS
Identification and analysis of potential emergencies likely to impact on the facility shall be undertaken for each individual facility to determine which events require consideration as emergencies in the emergency plan. The emergency identification and analysis shall include the following:
(a) Identifying specific emergency events and scenarios that might affect the people in a facility.

NOTES:
1 This should include emergency events and scenarios arising from sources—
(a) internal to the facility;
(b) external to the facility; and
(c) within the facility that affect other facilities.
2 The following are examples of types of emergencies to be considered:
(a) Human Bomb; bomb threat; building invasion/armed intrusion; personal threat; chemical, biological and radiological/nuclear incidents; civil disorder; medical emergency; arson, explosion; suspect object.
(b) Natural Bushfire/grass fire; cyclones, including storm surge; earthquake; explosion; fire and smoke; flood; severe weather/storm damage.
(c) Technological Hazardous substances incidents; industrial incidents; structural instability; transport incidents; toxic emissions.
(b) Identifying the possible consequences of each emergency to people within the facility and their vulnerability before, during and after the emergency.
(c) After following the steps (a) and (b) above, deciding which types of potential emergencies are to be included in the emergency plan. Potential emergencies for inclusion in the emergency plan may also be identified from documentation such as fire safety engineers’ reports, fire safety plans, other safety reports and risk assessment reports.

Further outlined in AS 3745 - 2010 are key considerations that must be taken into account when producing emergency procedures for a site.

3.3 KEY CONSIDERATIONS
In identifying potential emergencies and developing and maintaining the emergency plan, the following shall be taken into account:
(a) The size and complexity of the facility.
(b) Fire engineered or life safety features of the facility. NOTE: The regulatory approval process, fire engineering reports, occupant evacuation analyses, fire safety plans and other building reports should be used to determine the fire engineered or life safety features of the facility.
(c) Security systems, procedures and protocols.
(d) The number and nature of occupants and visitors.
(e) The hours of occupancy.

3.4 STRUCTURE OF THE EMERGENCY PLAN
The emergency plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following elements:
(a) A clear statement of purpose and scope.
(b) Information on the structure and purpose of the EPC.
(c) Identification of the facilities to which it applies. (d) Descriptions of the fire safety and emergency features of the facility.
(e) The organisational arrangements for the facility. (f) Separate sections for the following: (i) The emergency identification outcomes.
(ii) The emergency response procedures, in accordance with Section 4.
(iii) The evacuation diagram, in accordance with Clause 3.5.
(iv) Training arrangements, in accordance with Section 6.
(g) A statement of the extent of distribution of the emergency plan or excerpts from the emergency plan.
(h) A record of distribution, including where personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) for people with disabilities are held. For example PEEPs should be held by the relevant warden. (i) Details of the hours of occupancy of the facility.
(j) The EPC nominated validity period for the emergency plan.
(k) The date of issue or amendment date on each page of the emergency plan. If an electronic format is used for the emergency plan, at least one printed copy shall be available on site.

Further information on the requirements for Australian Standard 3745-2010 can be found at the following link:

Requirements for Evacuation Diagrams as per Australian Standard 3745-2010

For more information please contact an EMS Consultant today.