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emergency procedures



Esteemed  colleagues:
        sorry to take up so much of your time. However, this might be a good
time for you to review your emergency procedures, especially those dealing
with evacuation of your public use areas. Yesterday about 1:30 PM two
explosions and a fire occurred in the electrical systems area on the first
floor of the One Capitol Mall Building in Little Rock that houses a number
of state agencies, including the Arkansas History Commission and State
Archives. We occupy the second floor immediately above the area where the
explosions and fire occurred. We had 20 staff members and about 40 Research
Room patrons, members of the public, on hand when this occurred. To make
matters worse the power failed.
However, we avoided panic because the following:
        1. adequate emergency lighting. The patrons and staff were not
thrown into total darkness.
        2. a powerful audible fire alarm that left little doubt in anyone's
mind that an emergency were happening
        3. adequate advance emergency planning. We rehearse evacuating our
facility on a regular basis.
        4, quick work on the part of our staff members, who for the most
part, knew the exact location of emergency exits and what to do in a case
like this
        5. and the quick work of the building's maintenance staff, who put
the fire out almost immediately.
We were able to get everyone out within about 2 minutes and into the parking
lot, including one elderly lady with a cane, down two flights of stairs - no
elevators in an emergency. Our power was down for several hours and we were
closed for the rest of the day.

I have several suggestions that might help you in a similar emergency (this
was the most serious I have experienced in over 30 years of work in an
archives):
        1. rehearse, rehearse, rehearse - know what to do then the emergency
occurs
        2. discuss emergency planning with staff members on a regular basis.
assign roles for each staff member:
        3. discuss policy beforehand about:
                        a. do I turn my computer off or leave it running?
                        b. do I lock my door after exit or leave it open?
                        c. do I take time to refile confidential documents,
rare book, manuscript collections, etc.
                        d. do I take my purse with me, how about my laptop,
or cell phone?
        4. formulate a policy for patrons in public use areas:
                        a. should they be told to take purses, computers,
bags, etc. with them? (important)
                        b. should they be told to turn off microfilm
readers, etc. ?
                        c. who will assist handicapped patrons, unattached
children, etc.? (important)

One thing I learned from this exercise. I will add a section about emergency
procedures to the orientations sessions for all new employs. I will always
treat an incident like this as a potential emergency. I will inform all
patrons to take those materials they need with them when they leave that
they will need if they can not come back into the Research Room. One patron
and several staff members left car keys, purses, call phones, etc. behind.
All in all the experience was not as serious as it could have been. But it
did get me to thanking. I hope it will get you to thanking as well.

Russell P. Baker, CA
Arkansas History Commission and State Archives
One Capitol Mall
Little Rock, AR 72201
501-682-6900
russell.baker@mail.state.ar.us <mailto:russell.baker@mail.state.ar.us>





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