Facility Safety Management

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Decisive Leadership
Know What To Do In An Emergency

When there’s an emergency on campus or in any other highly populated facility, decisive leadership is essential. Building occupants, whether students, faculty, staff or visitors must take appropriate and deliberate action when an emergency strikes a building, a portion of campus, or the entire community.
At Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, students, staff and other community members are advised to follow these important steps when there is an emergency on campus:
. • Conﬁrm and evaluate conditions;
. • Report the incident immediately; and
• Follow instructions from emergency staff precisely.

Depending on the nature and severity of the event, activate the following:
. • Emergency Response Team;
. • Emergency Recovery Group; and
. • All area staff and occupants.

Issue clear and consistent emergency notiﬁcations. Use all available communication tools.
The following are basic instructions for various emergency incidents.

Medical Emergency Procedure
. • Protect victim from further injury by removing any persistent threat to the victim. Do not move the victim unnecessarily. Do not delay in obtaining trained medical assistance.
. • Notify police of the location, nature and extent of the injury.
. • Provide ﬁrst aid until help arrives if you

have appropriate training and equipment and it is safe to do so.
• Send someone outside to escort emergency responders to the appropriate location, if possible.

Fire or Explosion Emergency Procedure
. • Alert people in the immediate area of theﬁre and evacuate the room.
. • Conﬁne the ﬁre by closing doors as you leave the room.
. • Activate the building ﬁre alarm system by pulling the handle on a local fire alarm box.
. • Notify police of the location and size of the ﬁre from a safe location.
. • Evacuate the building using an established Emergency Evacuation Procedure. Once outside, notify emergency responders of the location, nature and size of the ﬁre.
. • If you have been trained and it is safe to do so, attempt to extinguish the ﬁre with a portable ﬁre extinguisher. If you have not been trained to use a ﬁre extinguisher evacuate the area.

Hazardous Materials Emergency Procedure
A Hazardous Materials Emergency exists when:
. • Cleanup of a spill of a hazardous mater-ial is beyond the level of knowledge, training or ability of the staff in the immediate spill area; or
• The spill creates a situation that is immediately dangerous to the life and health of persons in the spill area or facility.
If a hazardous material spill occurs:
. • Alert people in the immediate area of the spill and evacuate the room. If an explosion hazard is present, take care not to create sparks by turning on or off electrical equipment.
. • Conﬁne the hazard by closing doors as you leave the room.
. • Use eyewash or safety showers as needed to rinse spilled chemicals off people.
• Evacuate any nearby rooms that may be affected. If the hazard will affect the entire building evacuate the entire building. If there is a chance of explosion from the chemical spill do not activate the building fire alarm. Evacuate the building manually by alerting others by voice. Take care not to turn electrical equipment on or off or otherwise cause sparks. If there is no chance of explosion, activate the building ﬁre alarm system by pulling the handle on a local ﬁre alarm box.
. • Notify police of the chemical, location and size of the spill from a safe location. Be prepared to spell chemical names.
. • If building evacuation is required, evacuate the building using an Emergency Evacuation Procedure. Once outside, notify emergency responders of the location, nature and size of the spill.
. • Isolate contaminated persons. Avoid contamination or chemical exposure.

Power Outage Procedure
. • Assess the extent of the outage in the unit’s area.
. • Report the outage.
. • Assist other building occupants to move to safe locations. Loss of power to fume hoods may require the evacuation of laboratories and surrounding areas.
. • Implement a power outage plan. Evaluate the unit’s work areas for hazards created by power outage. Secure hazardous materials. Take actions to preserve human and animal safety and health. Take actions to preserve research.
. • Turn off and/or unplug non-essential electrical equipment, computer equipment and appliances. Keep refrigerators and freezers closed throughout the outage to help keep them cold.
. • If needed, open windows (in mild weather) for additional light and ventilation.

Criminal Activity or Violence Emergency Procedure
1. Attempt to remove yourself from any danger.
2. Notify police from a safe location if possible.
3. If possible, provide the police with the following information.

. • Location of crime;
. • Nature of crime and specifics (number
of people involved, any weapons, etc.);
. • Any injuries;
. • Description of suspect(s) (height, weight, sex, race, clothing, hair color etc.);
. • Direction of travel of suspects; and
. • Description of any vehicles involved in the crime.

4. DO NOT pursue or attempt to detain suspects.

Bomb Threat Procedure
1. Remain calm and obtain as much information as possible from the caller. Try to write down the caller’s exact words. Ask for and try to obtain the following information:
. • When is the bomb going to explode?
. • Where is the bomb located right now?
. • What does the bomb look like?
. • What kind of bomb is it?
. • What will cause the bomb to explode?
. • Did you place the bomb?
. • Why?
. • What is your address?
. • What is your name?

2. Also record the following information:
• Exact time the call is received; with the following characteristics:
Information about caller including:

Information about caller including:
. • Sex;
. • Age
. • Accent;
. • Caller’s attitude;
. • Speech impediments or traits;
. • Education;
. • Location of caller; and
. • Background noises.
. 3. Immediately notify police from a safe location. Provide the police with the of the threat, telephone number on which it was received, your name, room number and telephone number where you can be reached.
. 4. Take no other action unless directed to by police.
.
. Suspicious Package Procedure
. Take the following actions if you receive or observe a suspicious letter or package that is unexpected or unknown with the following characteristics:
. • Excessive postage;
. • Misspellings of common words;
. • Excessive weight;
. • Rigid envelope;
. • Foreign mail, air mail or special delivery;
. • Hand written or poorly typed address;
. • Restrictive markings such as conﬁdential, personal, etc.;
. • Excessive securing - material such as masking tape, string, etc.;
• Incorrect titles; context
• Oily stains or discoloration;
• Visual distractions;
• Lopsided or uneven;
• Titles but no names;
• No return address; and
• Protruding wires or tinfoil.

1. Notify Police immediately.
2. Move people away from the package.

-• DO NOT move or open the package.
• DO NOT investigate too closely.
• DO NOT cover, insulate or place the package into a cabinet or drawer.
Emergency Evacuation Procedure
A building evacuation is mandatory whenever a fire alarm sounds, and building occupants should exit immediately, putting the unit’s prepared evacuation plan into effect. After a building has been evacuated, occupants must wait for a safety inspection before re-entry.

Note that it may or may not be necessary to vacate a specific area during an emergency incident. Occupants in the area may simply be directed to remain on-site and shut down systems, or they may be asked to move to other sections of their floor or building.

In some events (such as extended power outages), evacuations are not necessary unless the incident has generated a hazardous materials incident or immediate health and safety risk. In limited emergencies, wait for evacuation instructions and engage the unit’s Emergency Response Team to communicate the information throughout the unit. FSM