Petrochem/Utilities Industry Trends

New Guidelines for a New World

Issue Table of Contents

The Importance of Being Prepared Doing Business as Usual During Unusual Circumstances Working Together to Keep the Lights On

It was early afternoon at the Burnaby campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), one of Canada's premier polytechnic institutions. As usual at that time, classes were underway. Everything seemed normal—until a boiler exploded, destroying or damaging 26 buildings on campus.

Luckily, there were no fatalities, and only minor injuries, most of which occurred as people ran away from the scene. And despite the extensive damage, the explosion proved to be valuable on another level by allowing the Institute to test its emergency plans under very real-world conditions. It was a test that the university passed with flying colors.

“It proved the value of planning,” says Carolyn Sinclair. An instructor and program coordinator of BCIT’s forensic sciences department, Sinclair also assists with the institute’s disaster planning and preparedness activities. Her experience with disasters is considerable—as owner of Strategic Business Risks International, she helps a number of organizations with risk management, loss prevention, and emergency preparedness.

Even though the institute had never experienced a disaster of that magnitude, it was well prepared for the incident, with emergency plans in place. Even so, it wasn’t just the plans that made a difference, but also the BCIT disaster response team’s focus on flexibility that helped.

“In all the responses I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a lot of them, I’ve never seen a plan that fit the incident,” says Sinclair. “You always end up revising or revamping it. You always learn something.”

Learning was a key part of getting through the emergency. Briefings were held daily to keep people informed and to ensure that they were comfortable in their roles. The team kept detailed notes of what parts of the plan were working—and what were not.

The disaster response team also improvised, and provided cell phones to teachers to give to students for emergency communications, since most of the people who had been evacuated from the buildings ended up separated from their phones, money, and even car keys. While not in the previous emergency plan, the back-up cell phones proved to be so successful that they are now part of the university’s current plan.

Moving beyond the incident
Managing a disaster doesn’t just stop with the incident. A successful emergency plan must also focus on business continuance to get the organization operating normally as quickly as possible.

“The day you respond to an incident, you have to be thinking about how you’re going to wrap this up. You always need to be thinking about that because a lot of times an incident doesn’t stop if people aren’t in the mindset of wrapping it up. Adrenaline is high, people bond, forgetting it’s time to go home. That’s why a lot of incidents can carry on a lot longer than they need to,” Sinclair points out.

More than a year-and-a-half later, even as reconstruction continues, business is very much back to normal at the Burnaby campus. Yet the institute continues refining its disaster response plans. “We’re always looking at what we’re learning from other incidents in other places, and doing constant ongoing assessments,” says Sinclair.

Sinclair believes this is a vital part of the process for any organization. She also recommends annual testing of plans, organizing mock evacuations and drills as well as tabletop exercises. Inviting auditors from outside the organization can provide a fresh perspective on plans.

Planning will always be an essential part of emergency responses no matter what the disaster may be, whether it’s an earthquake, terrorist attack or small warehouse fire. Believing that you don’t have to plan is the biggest mistake an organization can make. “Even though this is what happened at BCIT, it can happen to anybody,” Sinclair says. “We have to get past thinking it will only happen to somebody else.”

Subscribe to eNewsletter