This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Crime & Safety

North Shore Fire Department Makes National Presentation

Local firefighters traveled to Boston to share best practices.

When disaster strikes, foresight and planning are beyond priceless – they can be life-saving.

And whether the disaster is a natural one, like an earthquake or flood, or an industrial-related accident, like a chemical spill or explosion, the best course of action is to have a practiced, comprehensive plan in place before the trouble reaches your doorstep.

And the is ahead of the curve when it comes to making sure plans are in place for emergencies prior to tragedy. So much so in fact, members of the department made a trip to Boston earlier this month where they made a presentation on emergency planning awareness and best practices at the National Fire Protection Association conference.

Find out what's happening in Fox Point-Baysidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jill K. Glanz, public education specialist with NSFD, focused her part of the presentation on evacuation procedures within emergency planning.

“We focused on some of our experiences when developing or expanding emergency evacuation plans (for) various occupancy use groups such as schools, businesses and large mercantile and residential (buildings).”

Find out what's happening in Fox Point-Baysidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Glanz’ co-presenter, NSFD Fire Inspector Matthew Mertens, said that pre-planning evacuations for accidents and emergencies is incredibly importance because of all of the different factors involved.

“From understanding the risks associated with unattended cooking or candles in the home to the potential limitations of their family member’s ability to evacuate a building in a fire due to age, mobility or comprehension,” he said.

Mertens added that NFPA research indicates the most vulnerable groups are children under five and adults over 65, so evacuation plans should include specific guidelines for those groups as well.

But creating an emergency plan – either for your home or business – isn’t easy and shouldn’t be taken lightly, Mertens said.

“The task of generating and maintaining a quality emergency plan can be daunting and takes the coordinated efforts of many people and organizations to be successful,” he says. “As we are all key players in (the emergency plan) effort, it is extremely important that we all understand the task at hand and have the opportunity to understand several different perspectives.”

The key learning tool offered in Glanz and Mertens’ “Emergency Planning Awareness” presentation was to create a fake incident and act out the evacuation and related procedures.

“Practical incident management demonstrates the effectiveness of an emergency plan in a real-life and real-time environment while evaluating resource response time," Glanz said.

She said the primary lessons learned from the mock incident the types of resources may be needed for an event; the need for, and maintenance of, partnerships on levels ranging from local, to state, and even national; and the need to improve upon and regularly reassess all emergency plans.

On their Boston trip, Glanz and Mertens were not just preaching to the choir, however.

“Our audience in Boston ranged widely from fire service personnel to hospital and health care executives and industrial safety coordinators from around the country,” Mertens said.

In the end, it’s not only about having the right tools but also practicing their use for the event an incident does occur. “In the real world, (it’s about) giving any business or homeowner the tools they need to produce or update an emergency plan that meets the needs of their business or family make-up,” Mertens said.

Glanz says she's hopeful this will help families stay prepared for emergency situations.

“The emergency plan will be second nature to these entities and individuals," she said. "Our hope is that families and entities will have good evacuation plans in place; will practice their plans several times each year, and will react in a calm, safe, efficient manner during practice situations, as well as true incidents.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.