Industry
Actions to follow during an emergency
If a major accident occurs on site here is a simple checklist to follow whether you are an Upper Tier, Lower Tier or just an industrial site:
- Make an initial call to the Emergency services by dialling 999
- (Upper Tier sites have a duty to contact Police, Fire, Ambulance and Coastguard) however all other sites only contact the emergency services you require.
- Try to give as much information as possible
- The emergency services will ask a number of questions to assist in their response to your site. Know what is on your site and where it is located!
- Continue with your daily business to the best of your ability
In an emergency you may have a series of actions / duties you have to follow to ensure that staff are safe and the site is secure.
If you evacuate your site, do your staff know where they are meant to go or what to do?
Make sure staff have clear instructions.
If you have regular contact with neighbouring sites or residents make sure they are aware of what to do in the event of an emergency. Consider how you will communicate with those who are affected.
If your organisation has a media department or media officer.
Make sure they are aware of the situation and are prepared to provide a statement or speak to the press.
Consider whether an incident at your site may have any environmental impacts.
If so be prepared to support the Environment Agency and Fire Service where possible to mitigate these effects.
Consider what will happen once the incident is over.
Will you be able to return to business as normal? If not do you have back up arrangements in place? Consider staff welfare.
COMAH templates:
Plan templates
The aim of the External Emergency plans is to help the rapid deployment and co-ordination of the resources needed to help mitigate the effects of a Major Accident at an upper tier COMAH site. Within the plan it defines how responding organisations will work together and focuses on how the wider community will be supported in the event of a major accident.
The External Emergency plan produced by HEPS under the Regulations is divided into two parts:
Universal plan
The Universal plan is a supporting document for the External Emergency plan. The document is generic to all upper-tier establishments within the Humber area. It’s designed to provide the background information on the COMAH planning process and the Emergency Management Arrangements that are common to all upper-tier establishments.
External Emergency plan
The External Emergency plan provides information on the response to a Major Accident or an uncontrolled event which could reasonably be expected to lead to a Major Accident. Contained within the plan is key information required by responding organisations to ensure they have the appropriate details to enable them to respond to a Major Accident at that particular upper-tier site. It’s designed to contain information provided by both the site and by some of the responders.
Both the Universal plan and External Emergency plan, mention the Humber Local Resilience Forum Emergency Procedures Manual (EPM), the Humber Local Resilience Forum Communication Plan and the Local Resilience Forum Recovery Protocol. These define how responding organisations will work together in the event of an emergency.
Keeping in contact with sites:
We keep in regular contact with upper-tier sites and like to ensure that they are kept up to date with any news or developments.