Fire Evacuation Drill with a Difference

I had been given the task to organize a fire evacuation drill specifically for only a certain area in a building.

As ridiculous as it may seem, there was a very good reason for doing this.

Firstly, this is a high technology manufacturing facility that manufactures products under extremely clean and dust-free conditions. With clean room facilities standard that goes down to class 10, it is very, very clean indeed. As such it is very important that dust do not enter into the clean room under manufacturing conditions. So in the past, all evacuation drills were done just before we had a planned plant shutdown for maintenance.

Secondly, during the past few years, whenever an evacuation drill was organized, the administration offices were usually closed, and all the workers will be making use of the opportunity to take their vacation. Practically nobody will be around. Even the production workers will be taking their vacation when they have stopped all their machines and handed over the plant for shutdown maintenance.

So when the office workers say that they do not know what to do in a fire situation, we can fully understand why. They had not been taking part in any fire evacuation drill before. It is not enough just to describe what will happen in an evacuation to them - somehow, we have to organize an actual evacuation drill for the office workers themselves. The challenge is to do it while the manufacturing production is still operating.

Any mistake that will cause people from the manufacturing clean rooms to evacuate will be disastrous to the company. The stakes are high.

The fire protection alarm system in our building is wired in such a way that any triggering of the alarm by activating a break glass, smoke detector, heat detector or sprinkler flow switch will eventually trigger the general alarm for the whole building if it is not acknowledged and reset back within 3 minutes. This is a safety feature to ensure that somebody actually goes and check the situation whenever there is an alarm.

In our fire evacuation plan, all the occupants had been trained to open the doors of the nearest exit point and escape from the building whenever it is confirmed that a real fire or emergency has occurred. This will ensure that nobody is left inside the building if there is a real emergency.

However, as far as our manufacturing clean room is concerned, this will be disastrous. All the products, rooms, machinery and clean room environment will be destroyed once the doors were opened to the atmosphere. It will take hours to recover back to the original condition. The losses will be enormous.

Although normal communications through supervisors and public address systems can be done, still there is too much at stake to take that risk.

That was our first option. Relying on human communications leaves too much on uncertainty. We have to make it completely idiot-proof. This option is not fool proof. Somebody might claim that they did not get the message.

Our second option was to re-program the fire alarm system to exclude all the areas in the clean rooms. This option was a bit tricky as there were some uncertainty as to how the alarm bells were wired up. We had to admit that although everything was drawn on paper on the as-built drawings, we were not 100% sure whether the re-programming will cover all the alarm bells inside the clean rooms or not. Moreover, there had been some renovation done on the existing building and nobody had taken the trouble to test the alarm bells then. So this option was also shelved.

Our third option was to re-wire the existing bells specifically only for the offices, so that we can trigger only the office areas. This seems a pretty good option, except that the preparation re-wiring work will have to be done at the installation itself. During the re-wiring period, the office itself would not be protected by the fire alarm system. In addition, the original wires would need to be disturbed and re-looped - something engineering people would not be keen to do - as it might give rise to other unexpected problems.

Our fourth option - to fabricate and install addition bells with triggering switches and fix them just beside the existing bells seemed to be the best option. By using additional bells, batteries, switches and getting them wired up at a portable stand in a workshop, they could be tested, carried along and put in place within a very short time. The best feature of this option is that the original fire alarm wiring need not be disturbed at all.

Choosing the fourth option, we fabricated three sets of alarm bell triggering units and placed them at the appropriate places at the offices. When the time for triggering the alarm bells came, an order was issued through the walkie-talkie and the bells were triggered by the technicians at those stations.

So, we managed to organize the fire evacuation drill for the offices only. Nobody evacuated from the manufacturing clean rooms because the bells were not sounded there. All the office workers had their evacuation drill and everything went on smoothly.

A potentially huge manufacturing loss was avoided by adopting a simple idea. A workable idea born out of necessity.

"For Busy People Luxury Furnishing Impress Customers"
Your Office Furnishing Represents Your Business! Beautiful Rugs Make Customers Responsive to Your Sales Pitch. Impress Your Customers and Become Successful!

Many years of working experience in Marine, Facilities, Construction has given the author material for writing e-books and articles related to engineering, and management. Subscribe to facworld ezine

More information at Marine Engineer and M & E Engineer

---

Do You Need A Business Plan If Your Idea Is New, Untested, or Unproven?

Who Should Read This Article?Anyone nursing a new (especially untested... Read More

Creativity, Innovation, and the Importance of Spontaneity

Spontaneity occurs when ideas or behaviours are expressed without evaluation.... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Decision Makers

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Discontinuous Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Enhancing Vulnerability To Master Perfectionism

One of the ways a person must advance past perfectionism... Read More

Business Innovation ? Eliciting Talent

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Intuition Power In Three Steps

Have you ever used your intuition to solve problems? Can... Read More

How to Turn Nothing Into Something

Excerpted from the Jim Rohn Weekend Seminar-Excelling in the New... Read More

Improve Your Business Dealings with Improvisation

"Nothing is accidental ... use everything." -- Keith JohnstoneEven the... Read More

Color Your Life

Have you ever arrived at place in your career and... Read More

All Fortunes Begin With an Idea!

A new idea is merely the combination of two or... Read More

Business Innovation ? Masks and Trance

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Innovation Management ? The Harsh Facts Of Life For All Innovators

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Business Innovation ? Confidence through Competence

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Opportunity: Could You Be Colour-blind?

Do you consider your vision perfect? You may never have... Read More

Knowledge Gains in Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Improve Your Small Talk - Gain Big Dividends!

Do you hate to make small talk? If so, you... Read More

Solve Problems With A Word List

To creatively solve problems you need to get your mind... Read More

How To Benefit from The Power of New Innovations in the Year 2005

How many times have you heard the phrase "knowledge is... Read More

A Time for Rebellion!

When is it right for you to rebel against the... Read More

Business Ideas ? Need a New Idea? Try Changing Your Perspective

One definition of creativity states that creative people look at... Read More

Set Yourself Up for Success!

Set Yourself Up For Success!... Read More

Choosing a Winning Business Idea

You've probably heard it a hundred times by now -... Read More

Cumulative Gains in Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

What to Do When You Are Chased by a Snake

I lived for several years on the Japanese island of... Read More

Why It?s Important to Make Your Idea Real

Say you have an idea for something new and exciting... Read More

Innovation Management ? Famous Failures!

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Fire Evacuation Drill with a Difference

I had been given the task to organize a fire... Read More

Managing Creativity and Innovation, Part 1 of 2

Leaders, consultants and managers must be competent in at least... Read More

Innovation Management ? Isolating Problems and Implementing Solutions

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Business Innovation ? Good Thinking

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Mindfulness and Beliefs: Irrationally Yours

I can't help it--I am a confirmed neuroscience geek.So I... Read More

Innovation

Innovation, in a business context, is generally thought of as... Read More