What needs to be in place to make emergency response really effective? Sembcorp UK’s Protection Group on Teesside currently safeguards GB pound 14 billion worth of high-hazard industrial assets in the UK. Kevin O’Hare explains.
If the research that we carried out at the Business Continuity Conference in London less than two years ago is anything to go by, in an emergency the majority of businesses in the UK are totally dependent on the local authority emergency services. While this is probably adequate for many organisations, it is certainly a high risk strategy for any company that is involved in high hazard manufacturing, processing or distribution.
Our findings also showed that many businesses have limited confidence in their ability to recover from a fire or, for that matter, a flood or other natural or man-made disaster. A significant number expressed a high degree of discomfort regarding their current state of preparedness, have a lack of confidence in how they would respond and a worrying uncertainty about how their staff would behave in an emergency. Few appear to have had any formal training in disaster management, and many companies gave the firm impression that they worked in isolation and did not consider neighbouring businesses or the local community. Perhaps the most alarming concern was the number who admitted that they are just ‘ticking boxes’ rather than implementing effective and tested emergency response arrangements.
Other research has come to different conclusions, but even these studies readily acknowledge that this may be because there is still a lingering fundamental lack of awareness regarding the severity of the impact that a fire can have on a business. It is also quite possible that companies are reluctant to acknowledge to themselves, let alone their stakeholders, that the business is so vulnerable.
Assessing the risks
So, the first task for the outsourced emergency response service provider must be to carry out a thorough and far-reaching risk assessment, starting from scratch and taking nothing as read. Much has been written and spoken about risk assessments, particularly since the enactment of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, so the need to reiterate their importance would seem to be unnecessary. But the suspicion, at least, must exist that some companies’ risk assessments have been undertaken with less diligence than they demand. From our experience, far too many still fall into the ‘ticking boxes’ category, and too many managements are prone to treating risk assessments as a ‘done and dusted’ exercise. Off-the-shelf forms and online risk assessments may be suitable for very small low risk buildings, but that is all.
The risk assessments have to be all-embracing, leaving no stone unturned. It is also imperative that the assessments are dynamic to enable them to accommodate new threats and changing circumstances. This is particularly so for high hazard sites such as chemical plants, petrochemical facilities, and manufacturing and distribution centres that store volatile, toxic or highly flammable materials. Assessments also need to consider more than just the nature and size of the fuel load of the building, the processes undertaken, and the active and passive fire protection.
Arson is a real threat that the service provider needs to take very seriously. The potential arsonist is not limited to the disaffected youth intent on overt vandalism – fires can be started for any number of reasons, so securing the site is as important a fire safety measure as it is to keep thieves at bay.
The need to look beyond the site perimeter to assess what is going on nearby is also important – it is every bit as vital to take into account the impact of nearby fire, explosion and spillage risks. Does, for example, a neighbouring business use flammable liquids in its manufacturing process? This is the sort of question that the service provider has to ask, and a solution needs to be devised for the day when a flammable spillage or fire spreads.
It is essential to keep asking the question: what if? What if, for example, the site’s water supply is damaged by an initial explosion? What if, as frequently happens, the fixed firefighting equipment is destroyed in the blast? What if the site’s stock of foam concentrate is inaccessible or inadequate to fight the fire?
Control
Every serving and former brigade firefighter will confirm that what you do in the first few minutes will determine the outcome of the incident. Therefore, it is essential that there is a secure, properly conceived and professionally manned emergency control centre if resources are to be marshalled and managed quickly and effectively. So, in addition to assessing the risks and implementing the necessary firefighting measures, it is also critically important to audit the site’s emergency control centre arrangements. Without an effective emergency control centre, incident management and the integration of all of the emergency services – in terms of mitigating actions – will be impossible to achieve.
While an on-site approach is favoured in the COMAH Regulations, Sembcorp has long favoured the use of off-site emergency control centres. As the Buncefield explosion and similar refinery fires around the world have shown, on-site facilities can easily be destroyed in large scale incidents of this nature. With every minute counting, having first to re-establish an emergency control centre is not a credible option. Ideally, refineries and chemical plants in particular need both on-site and off-site centres, both of which must reflect the unique circumstances that exist at the site, and the skills, knowledge and experience of the people manning them.
In fact, working together with nearby businesses and developing the closest possible relationship with the local emergency services can pay huge fire safety dividends. It also fosters the right relationship should a non-fire event occur, such as toxic spillages, floods and environmental pollution incidents. Just as during an emergency is no time to develop an effective response, it is equally too late to establish working relationships with organisations that might well be in a position to help you stave off a disaster.
At the assessment stage, it is essential to determine precisely what resources the local emergency services have at their disposal and to share the site’s emergency response plans with them. In particular, it is vital for the service provider to check to ensure that they have the specialist firefighting equipment that the site’s fire strategy may be dependant upon, and checking whether it is their own equipment or is it shared with a neighbouring service. If equipment cannot be guaranteed to be available when needed, the risk assessment must be revisited to determine what equipment may have to be retained on site.
For most brigades in the UK, resources are limited to appliances with a maximum pumping capacity of 2250 litres a minute, although some have appliances with larger capacities of 4500 litres a minute and hold up to 400 gallons of water for immediate use. They do not usually carry significant quantities of foam – typically a few 20-litre drums of foam concentrate – or other extinguishing agents in any meaningful quantities. The 68 million litres of water and 786,000 litres of foam concentrate used at Buncefield puts the potential problem into sharp perspective.
Specialist equipment
On its Wilton International site on Teesside, for example, Sembcorp has two E-One American appliances – one delivers 22,701 litres a minute of foam, and the other 11,355 litres a minute. There are also four triple agent appliances with maximum pumping capacity of 4500 litres a minute. Depending on the model, they hold up to 4500 litres of ATC AFFF foam concentrate and up to 750kg of dry powder. This is supported by a further 140,000 litres of foam – the largest industrial stock of foam concentrate in the UK.
It also has a high capacity, fast delivery water support unit. Fitted with the latest technology, it enables the transfer of water whenever and to wherever it is needed in the right quantity and at the right pressure. The unit incorporates 2000 metres of 125mm diameter hose that is stored flat and can be deployed from the unit in a matter of minutes, enabling water to be moved quickly over long distances with minimal friction loss. The unit also has capacity for a further 2000 metres of hose to increase the reach to 4000 metres.
Obviously, the best equipment in the world counts for nothing if the people using it are not properly trained. The same need for training applies to every other aspect of emergency response. Even if the actual firefighting task is outsourced to a specialist provider, on-site personnel will still need to be trained, if only to know how to liaise with the outsourced provider or responder. The training should be tailored to the company, the risks, the equipment and the individual. That may range from straightforward instruction on how to select the right portable extinguisher and how to use it, to incident controller and emergency control centre personnel training; everything that might possibly be encountered in operational, tactical and strategic incident management, as well as courses covering breathing apparatus, safety procedures and first aid.
On-site practice, together with full scale exercising and testing of every part of the emergency arrangements, are an essential part of the provider’s role. Testing credible scenarios and the ‘what if’ challenges should be built into exercises to test as many as possible sets of circumstances. While the majority of emergency tests are conducted in the middle of the day, mid-week, often with plenty of warning, most fires seem to occur in the middle of the night or at the weekend! So that is when they should be conducted, without prior warning – board meeting or no board meeting.
Outsourcing in practice
In practice, outsourced emergency preparedness can take two forms. At its most expansive, the service provider undertakes every aspect of emergency preparedness, providing the staff, equipment, protocols and training tailored to the specific site. The emergency response and preparedness contract with Petroplus in North Tees is a typical example – the company produces ultra-low sulphur diesel and bio-diesel, kerosene, gasoil, and petrochemical feed stocks on a 40-hectare site. The facility currently refines up to 117,000 barrels of crude oil a day, and supplies a significant proportion of the UK’s bio-diesel blend. Sembcorp UK provides fire and chemical spill protection and emergency planning for the refinery, and site protection officers provide firefighting, medical response and security protection services. All are JOIFF (Joint Oil & Industry Fire Forum) accredited firefighters with NVQ qualifications in their core activities.
However, the service provider can also provide expert help, guidance and training to bring the site’s own emergency response resources up to best practice levels. An example of this is being undertaken in Romania for the petrochemicals giant, Petrom. The work is centred on the Petrobrazi refinery – one of Petrom’s largest, and believed to be southeast Europe’s most modern refinery – and focuses on assisting the company with its goal to implement a world-class emergency response strategy. The initial task was to assess whether Petrom’s needs would be best met by enhancing the in-house emergency response capability or outsourcing it to a specialist service provider. The current facilities and operational procedures were reviewed and a ‘gap analysis’ was produced for Petrom’s management that highlighted the services required to meet the company’s performance expectations. Based on this, the decision was ultimately taken to outsource its emergency response requirement. Sembcorp created a specification for the new service provision, devised a site-specific equipment investment programme, and formulated the vital transition plan. Key performance indicators were also determined to ensure that the new service provider consistently delivers an efficient and cost-effective service.
Kevin O’Hare is emergency planning manager at Sembcorp UK’s Protection Group. He can be contacted on +44 (0) 1642 212904 or [email protected]. The company’s website is www.sembutilities.co.uk/protection
