BY JOSEPH L. KITCHEN
Looking around your department’s response area, you should identify facilities that present distinct hazards for which most new firefighter recruits have not been trained and may not even realize exist. Nationwide, steel mills, power plants, chemical facilities, and thousands of other businesses are chock full of known and unknown hazards. New firefighters arriving on our department’s front steps rarely have any knowledge of how to respond to and operate in an industrial setting. This puts them at significant risk unless proper training is provided.
(1) The Bath Township (OH) Fire Department at the Ford Motor Company Lima Engines Plant, which annually produces more than 900,000 engines. (Photos by author.) (2) The department trains monthly with the plant’s internal emergency response team.
The Bath Township (OH) Fire Department (BTFD) is a small department outside of Lima that has a rich history of industry and manufacturing. Just a few miles away from our station is the Ford Motor Company Lima Engines Plant, which produces more than 900,000 engines annually (photos 1 and 2). In the opposite direction is the Procter & Gamble (P & G) manufacturing and distribution center, which produces fabric care products. Between 200 and 400 semi trucks leave the facility daily to distribute them. In addition, we have an auto driveshaft plant, an auto parts painting and coating plant, a large plastics manufacturer and warehouse facility, a major commercial bakery, and several more midsize to small commercial manufacturing plants and warehouses. This is just right here in our little corner of the United States. How many fire departments have similar and more hazardous facilities in their response areas?
These businesses provide a much-needed economic tax base in our community and employ thousands of residents. We want to do our very best to provide the highest level of emergency services to ensure their long-term viability. However, each facility presents unique hazards that put their employees and responding firefighters at risk. In some instances, certain emergencies could negatively impact the surrounding community and environment. Therefore, the BTFD has proactively engaged all of these industries to ensure that our department is adequately prepared to respond to and mitigate all hazards safely and appropriately. We don’t want any surprises. When a fire occurs, we want to have already visited the facility numerous times and be well aware of the building and its surroundings. We have made it a top priority to visit, tour, and preplan industrial sites and meet with facility employees, managers, engineers, and safety personnel. The BTFD trains monthly with the Ford plant’s internal emergency response team and responds to approximately 100 mostly emergency medical services calls annually to P & G. We train regularly with P & G’s emergency response team (ERT), which is divided among fire, hazmat, and EMS specialties.
Six Tips for Successful Collaboration
Below are six tips for successful collaboration between your local fire department and industries in your service area.
Get past the front gate. Many of these facilities are enormous and spread over many acres. Multiple buildings, tank farms, warehouses, and huge parking lots can all look very intimidating from the road. Larger companies usually employ round-the-clock security that monitors cameras and keeps a very close eye on all facility entry points.
With today’s post-9/11 heightened security, getting into these facilities is not as easy as it used to be. The days of the local fire department rolling up to the front door and walking in are over. Fire department officials need to break the ice with plant management and safety personnel to create a comfortable relationship in which the fire department is always welcome at these facilities.
Set the relationship’s tone early with a total focus on safety for the community, the firefighters, and the employees. Management must know that you are not there to nitpick every burned-out exit sign light or misplaced fire extinguisher when you arrive. You must work diligently to show that your facility visits are in both parties’ best interests.
In our township, instead of holding us at the front gate until management comes out, security now waves us through at any time of the day or night. We have developed relationships based on trust, mutual respect, and admiration for our respective missions. The ultimate goal is for these businesses to consider your fire department a true partner in the operation.
Build strong relationships. Begin by getting to know the key people within the facility. You may not be able to waltz right into the office of the plant manager or the chief executive officer, but you can likely develop a great rapport with maintenance supervisors, security leaders, and safety engineers. Let them know that you want to learn more about the facility and what they do. Invite them to your fire station so they can see your facility, equipment, and apparatus. Look for opportunities to work together whenever possible. Team up on civic and community events. All of these things will lead to stronger relationships between both parties.
Invite them to lunch regularly; offer to be a guest at their weekly or monthly safety meetings. Tell them you want to observe evacuation drills and other safety practices within the plant. If they have an internal fire brigade or an ERT, join forces and work closely together. These team leaders should regularly meet with fire department officials.
Most likely, they will be apprehensive at first, especially if there hasn’t been much dialogue in the past. However, after some time, this relationship will seem normal, and both parties will begin to see many benefits. You must build these relationships on mutual trust. It may not happen overnight, but in time you will see the lines of communication opening more and more.
Learn the business. All of your firefighters should have a good handle on what a business does. They should know what raw materials are brought into the facility and how they are being delivered. They should also understand the basic manufacturing process and the associated hazards.
Fire department officials should also have a high level of awareness about the impact of a business interruption during emergencies. Industry leaders are under tremendous pressure to keep the facility open. We must implement a unified command system to work closely with the internal safety team to quickly, safely, and efficiently mitigate the emergency but also be aware of the need to keep the business operating if at all possible.
Whenever possible, fire department personnel should tour the facility, talk to employees, and observe the manufacturing processes. You can gather vital information for use in an emergency and demonstrate to the business that you are truly interested in its operations. You need to know how many employees work in each area, employee census changes from shift to shift, and the basic responsibilities of all workers. Keep in mind that business resumption postincident is a high priority to the company. Be aware of this and be willing to help it get back up and running in a timely manner.
Evaluate hazards. Risk management is essential to effectively preplanning these special hazard facilities. Every firefighter in your department should be well aware of the worst-case scenario at any industrial complex or manufacturing facility. Specific hazards such as utilities and power supply pose significant risks for first responders. At chemical plants and refineries, the most dangerous time for first responders is when the plant is not running. Generally, emergencies occur during shutdowns/startups and leaks or other process interruptions.
Working Side by Side for Safety
Your fire department should have a candid, open, and honest discussion about worst-case scenarios. Once identified, plans should be in place for response, firefighter safety, and community protection. Don’t let the business minimize the potential impact of major system failures. Advise it that by discussing these hazards now, you can be better prepared to save lives and property in a disaster. Questions to ask are, “What worries you the most about your facility? What do you consider to be a worst-case scenario?” From there, you can begin to build a plan.
Planning and procedures. Once hazards have been determined, detailed plans should be in place. Generally, major commercial complexes already have written policies and procedures; however, many times our departments do not have access to these plans. This information should be shared between both parties. Also, these plans do little during an emergency if they have spent their entire life on a shelf. Emergency response plans should be read, studied, shared, updated, and practiced regularly. As our global economy rapidly changes, it is not uncommon for business and industry to be in a constant state of growth and change. Therefore, you should regularly communicate with these facilities and review these changes. Set up meetings as needed to discuss policies and emergency response guidelines. This dialogue should be ongoing.
Training. Training may be one of the most important parts of a successful collaboration with local business and industry. We must regularly meet face-to-face with the employees, management, and all other interested parties. Fire department equipment and apparatus should regularly respond to these facilities in nonemergency situations, such as inspections, preplanning walkabouts, and training drills.
Firefighters should be comfortable with their surroundings when behind the facility gates. The more time we can spend at our local industries in nonemergency situations, the better prepared we will be in emergency situations.
Set up training drills and get shoulder-to-shoulder with employees. Develop a training schedule to hit all shifts and include as many people as possible. Bring in mutual-aid departments and other public safety entities that may also respond to an emergency. Do not miss any opportunity to train for what could be the worst day in the history of your community. Ask to be invited to regular safety meetings, and get involved in their training program.
Having major industrial complexes in your community should not be a burden. Safety and engineering have improved immensely over the years, and most of these businesses operate in a very safe manner. However, they do present a very unusual set of hazards. If we don’t educate ourselves, we could be putting our community and our firefighters at risk.
JOSEPH L. KITCHEN, OFC, is the chief of the Bath Township (OH) Fire Department, which he joined in 1990 as a volunteer. He has completed Fire Officer I, II, and III and is a Level II Ohio firefighter, paramedic, fire investigator, and certified fire safety inspector. He has more than 27 years of emergency medical services (EMS) experience and has degrees in EMS and fire science.
