From the
Manager’s Desk:
Motion Picture
- Anand Kanna, Manager of Motion
Picture Programs and Services,
Actsafe Safety Association
The Three Phases of Emergency
Planning
W
Before. During. After.
hen was the last time you took
part in a fire drill? Within the last month?
Within the last year? Back in high
school? Don’t laugh; I bet it’s been that
long for some of us.
The sad truth is this; we work in an industry
where our workplaces change everyday. New
scenes, new locations, new productions, and
new workplaces, and we never take the time to
learn what the procedure is if disaster strikes. But
who is responsible for the plan?
Emergency planning is everyone’s responsibility.
In our personal lives, you’d be surprised
at how few of us do any actual planning
for emergencies, yet we seem to hold our
employers to a higher standard when it comes
to having a plan. How can we expect our
employers to do any emergency planning if we
don’t do it ourselves? Have you prepared an
emergency kit should a huge windstorm hit and
we’re without power for an extended period of
time? What about plans to pick-up the kids and
where to meet if an earthquake hits? These are
just a few of the things that we should address
in our emergency plan, and from here, it may
be easier to help develop an emergency plan
for our worksites.
16 Safety Scene
Maybe it’ll be easier to do our emergency
planning if we break it down into three easy
to remember phases; Before, During, After.
‘Before’ is the actual planning stage where all
the heavy lifting takes place. What to have on-
hand, where to report to and such. The ‘Before’
stage may take some time but after that’s
done, all we have to do is wait until disaster
strikes, right? Maybe not. Now that there’s a
plan in place, this might be the perfect time to
test that plan. Hold your emergency response
drill and see if everyone knows what to do,
where to go, how to respond. If not, time
to refine that plan and test again. Once an
emergency situation occurs, there’ll be no time
to try and figure out what to do next.
The ‘During’ stage in an emergency situation
is pretty self explanatory, and is when the
plan is put into effect. A well- informed team
that knows what the plan is and what their
responsibilities are within that plan can help
to minimize damage and possibly save lives.
Once the danger has passed, the ‘After’ phase
can begin, and it’s just as important in this
phase that everyone knows their role as in the
‘During’ phase. Who delivers medical aid, has
everyone made it out of the building safely,
and who ensures that everyone is accounted
for, all come in to play here. So with this little
Fall 2019 Edition: Emergency Preparedness