"the plant regularly practices fire drills and evacuation plans..."

When was your plant’s last fire drill and evacuation? If you do not know. If you have to think about it. Then it maybe it is time for another fire drill and evacuation. Here is a recent story of a company which had practice fire drills and evacuations:

An aluminium foundry is back to normal operations after a fire sent workers home one day during the week of March 6, 2016 in the Midwest USA.

The fire started about 1:42 p.m. with the local fire department arriving on scene shortly after. It was contained to an area about 400 feet from the north side of the building, local fire chief said.

"What happened was, it was going across the ceiling of the plant and hit a wall in the plant where a fan was. It started blowing the flames out of the building, which occurred after we got there," the local fire department said. "Everything was in the ceiling of the plant, a pretty good size of the ceiling area."

All employees safely exited the building, local fire department said. The aluminium foundry assistant vice president said the plant regularly practices fire drills and evacuation plans. All employees were evacuated from the building and accounted for at their evacuation points within a few minutes, he said.

The sprinkler system was activated by the fire, which kept the blaze "somewhat in check," The aluminium foundry assistant vice president said. Three fire departments also responded with 27 firefighters on scene. Fire personnel were on site for more than four hours dealing with the fire and later hot spots, he said.

The local county sheriff's deputies also were on scene to shut down the roads around the plant.

The aluminium foundry assistant vice president said initial damage estimates were about $50,000 but might rise due to possible damage to electrical lines. The company has yet to determine costs but said because the fire was mainly in the overhead area no equipment was damaged.

"Our first thought was to get everyone out safe and the second was how to get back up and running," he said. "We haven't even gotten to that point of assessing costs."

The last hour or so of first shift and all of second was canceled to begin repairs in the affected area, he said.

"All areas except a small pocket were back up and running around 10:30 p.m. last night," he said. "We had a lot of associates put in a lot of extra hours last night but we got everything running again."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog commends this plant for the safe and orderly evacuation once the fire broke out. We have post incidents where workers have become trapped and some died due to blocked evacuation paths. It is our recommendation that fire and evacuation drills be held at regular intervals but at irregular times. In other words do not have the fire drill take place at the same time.

Every time we here about a successful fire drill we think about the World Trade Center terrorist attack in 2001. Why? Well one building tenant Morgan Stanley evacuated many of their workers successfully. We acknowledge that many did not. We include this mention not disrespect the dead but to acknowledge how one individual and his constant and unending fire drills and evacuation resulted in an orderly and systematic evacuation. Rick Rescorla was in charge of corporate security at Morgan Stanley. He acknowledge the hazards of their office building. He began to carry out an endless series of random fire drills and evacuations. Stories talked about how Rick and his associates would use bullhorns to coordinate the fire drills. The fire drills would occur randomly. One even occurred during a meeting of the board of directors. Someone once asked Rick if he was going overboard with the frequency of fire drills. He said no. On September 11, 2001 when a plane hit into his tower he sprang into action. “When a Port Authority announcement came over the P.A. system urging people to stay at their desks, Rescorla ignored the announcement, grabbed his bullhorn, walkie-talkie and cell phone, and began systematically ordering Morgan Stanley employees to evacuate, including the 1,000 employees in WTC 5.” Out of 2,687 Morgan Stanley workers, 30-40 perished in the attack. When one of his colleagues told him he too had to evacuate the World Trade Center, Rescorla replied, "As soon as I make sure everyone else is out". He was last seen on the 10th floor, heading upward, shortly before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 A.M. His remains were never found. 

So with that sad tale we take hope and inspiration that fire drills and evacuations do work. When was the last time your plant had a fire drill and evacuation?