Fire Evacuation Map Requirements

Emergency response often uncoordinated in post-9/11 era

A July 2009 fire at the Patrick Cudahy meatpacking plant blazed for days, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people and causing more than $200 million in damage. While many aspects of the response went well, significant problems also occurred, including failures to meet federal emergency response requirements. Photo courtesy of Kimberly Prellwitz

In October 2007, about 140 firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other responders gathered at the Patrick Cudahy meatpacking plant, just south of Milwaukee. They were told a bomb, believed to be the work of an animal rights activist, had exploded in the cavernous building, and a fire threatened 177,000 pounds of pressurized ammonia.

As firefighters readied their hoses, responders rushed to activate an emergency operations center, evacuate the building and notify the public.

After three and a half hours, they stopped, put away their equipment and sat down to assess their response.

Every year, state and local agencies in Wisconsin perform multiple exercises to test emergency response capabilities, funded by federal homeland security grants created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

At Cudahy, an eerily similar real-life disaster took place less than two years after the training exercise.

The Patrick Cudahy fire — which began accidentally July 5, 2009, after a man at a Fourth of July party launched a military flare onto the building’s roof — blazed for days, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people and causing more than $200 million in damage. It was the largest structure fire in Wisconsin history.

Carol Wantuch, the city of Cudahy’s emergency management coordinator at the time, says the 2007 drill was invaluable in helping prepare for the real-life response. No one was killed or injured, and responders protected the highly flammable ammonia from the fire, which Wantuch attributes in part to the exercise.

New Fire Safety Rules for QLD Businesses | Safety Concepts

Trina at EVAC Services  forwarded a press release on the new Fire Safety Rules now in effect in Queensland.

Revised building fire and safety regulation came into force on 1 July 2009 with stricter responsibilities placed on building and body corporate management companies and commercial tenants.

As of 1 July 2009, a greater onus has been placed on Queensland businesses to comply with the new mandatory evacuation requirements under the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008.

Queensland businesses now face on-the-spot fines starting at $3,000 for non-compliance and Ben Swan, Director of Evacuation Services Australia (EVAC), believes many businesses are not even aware of their new responsibilities under the amended legislation.

“A large majority of businesses we have had dealings with are not even aware of the legislative changes and their obligations to comply with the revised evacuation procedures, despite being at risk of fines starting at $3,000,” Ben said.

“We recently undertook an audit of a major Brisbane shopping centre – of the 80 businesses surveyed only one was compliant; from the remaining 79, 18% had non-compliant diagrams and the remainder had no evacuation diagrams at all.”

“Becoming compliant is a relatively easy process which EVAC specialises in; businesses have a responsibility to ensure they are up-to-date with their evacuation plans in the case of a fire or emergency – the ramifications of non-compliance are far greater than a financial penalty, in the worst case scenario many lives can be at risk.”

Major changes under the regulation see an increasing number of parties responsible for implementing mandatory evacuation procedures than was previously the case, including tenants in commercial buildings, retail centres and accommodation unit owners.

“Businesses tenanted in commercial and retail buildings are now required by law to have their own evacuation procedures and diagrams in place; no longer can they rely on the common area plan provided by the building management,” Ben said.

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