Generic Emergency Responce Assistance Plan Part 1

Note: A flow chart is useful in summarizing the steps to be taken in processing emergency calls, making the appropriate notifications to personnel within and outside the company for their action and in a very general sense how the company is to respond, including some of the actions on site. For small companies, it may be better to simply indicate names of individuals as opposed to company staff positions and there also is value in adding telephone number contacts to those indicated that have to be notified of any incident for their information or action.

ACCIDENTS INVOLVING EXPLOSIVES
EMERGENCY REPORTING FORM FOR WHO IS CALLING?

(Date: __________ Time: __________)

Name: _________________________________________

Phone: _________________________________________

Organization:
______________________________________________________________
Location:
______________________________________________________________
Contact Person if Different Than Caller:
______________________________________________________________
Phone of Contact Person:
______________________________________________________________
Organization of Contact Person:
______________________________________________________________

WHAT IS THE EMERGENCY?

PROBLEM (mva, scattered powder, fire, detonation)

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Quantity Explosives: ___________________________

Type: ____________________________________

Injuries:
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Property Damage:
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Unit Number: ___________________________

Licence Number: ________________________________

Driver: _________________________________

Carrier: ______________________________________

WHEN DID IT OCCUR? Date: _______________ Time: ______________

WHERE IS THE EMERGENCY? (City, town, rural area, specific directions)
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

ARE THERE RESIDENCES, BUSINESSES OR OTHER PLACES WITH PEOPLE IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA?
_________________________________________________________________

HAVE THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES (AS PER SECTION 8 OF THE TDG REGULATIONS) BEEN NOTIFIED? IF NOT, NOTIFY THEM

WHO WAS NOTIFIED?

Name: ___________________      Telephone Number:______________     

Time:___________________

WHAT ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN? (Medical, evacuation, fire fighting?)

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE?

________________________________________________________

Note: A form to record the specifics of any accident reported to the company telephone number or by radio communication is valuable to collect relevant accident site information to be able to make a judgment on the seriousness of an incident and used to support decision making. It has value in being a written record of what was originally reported to the company about the accident. As such, it can then be faxed to others for their information and kept as a written indication of what was originally reported.

Note: Basic instructions to whoever answers the emergency telephone number (or radio) is useful by providing guidance to those personnel regarding the very first steps expected when receiving notification about a problem. This avoids confusion right at the beginning and reduces time required to reach the appropriate personnel within the company. It is particularly useful where there are a number of individuals who may be in a position of being the ones that may pick up the phone. In conjunction with a flow chart and reporting form, these instructions can be removed from the plan and posted for reception and other staff as the core directions to get the plan activated.

BETTER CRATER LOGGING AND CONSTRUCTION
EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN - IMMEDIATE ACTION
ERAP 2-1234 Telephone 221-8765

Instructions to Process Emergency Calls

WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE CALLS

IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY CALL REGARDING A TRANSPORTATION ACCIDENT INVOLVING EXPLOSIVES, DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. OBTAIN THE NAME AND A CALL BACK NUMBER IMMEDIATELY IN THE EVENT TELEPHONE CONTACT IS DISRUPTED. QUICKLY COMPLETE THE EMERGENCY REPORTING FORM TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. FILL IN THE BLANKS AS THOROUGHLY AS POSSIBLE.
2. CALL LEN SMITH AT 661-7824, RELAY THE SPECIFICS TO HIM. IF HE IS NOT AVAILABLE, CALL GERRY SMITH AT 661-3540.
3. LOCATE PIERRE GAGNON (OR ALTERNATIVELY STAN LITTLE) BY PAGING HIM AT 662-3355. WHEN HE CALLS, ADVISE HIM OF THE SITUATION AND ALERT HIM TO COLLECT EMERGENCY EQUIMENT EQUIPMENT, ARRANGE FOR ALTERNATIVE EXPLOSIVE TRANSPORT VEHICLE IN THE AREA OF THE ACCIDENT AND PREPARE TO GO TO THE SCENE BY THE QUICKEST MEANS POSSIBLE.
4. STAND BY AT THE OFFICE PHONE TO RECEIVE FURTHER INFORMATION OR INSTRUCTIONS FROM LEN, GERRY OR PIERRE.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSISTANCE PLAN
NUMBER 2-1234

BETTER CRATER LOGGING AND CONSTRUCTION

Note: The Introduction and Scope represent the beginning of the full written plan. The intention here is to state what the plan is required for, the basic tombstone information related to the company, circumstances for which the plan applies (products, quantities, geographical area of coverage), representative accident scenarios and critical on site tasking expected of company staff (to support the plan in terms of advice and "hands on" activities). It is important to accurately describe your company's situation in this portion of the plan.

INTRODUCTION

This plan is designed to meet the requirements of Part 7 of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations. It will be used to ensure the company acts in a manner consistent with the intent to protect public safety, property and the environment in the event of an accident involving the transportation of explosives.

It is company policy that all employees have a good understanding of the contents of this plan, know their role, responsibilities, and be aware of the other individuals involved and their roles. In addition, for key personnel to be familiar with emergency response equipment, where it is located and how to access it quickly; to act in an efficient and cooperative manner when called upon during an emergency.

SCOPE OF PLAN

Better Crater Logging and Construction offices are located at 525 Cypress Street in Campbell River. Our activities include the use of explosives in road construction under contract to a number of major forest companies, primarily Big Tree Incorporated and secondarily for civil excavation blasting. Our explosive supplier, Kaboum Inc. delivers the following products to our magazine located 100 km northwest of Campbell River on Tree Farm Licence Number xx (see attached map):

Explosive, blasting, type A, UN0081, class 1.1D
Explosive, blasting, type B, UN0331, class 1.5D
Explosive, blasting, type E, UN0241, class 1.1D
Explosive, blasting, type E, UN0332, class 1.5D
Detonator assemblies, non-electric for blasting, UN0360, class 1.1B
Detonators, non-electric for blasting, UN0029, class 1.1B
Cord, detonating, flexible, UN0065, class 1.1D

Better Crater has two pickups designed and approved for transporting explosives. Both vehicles have steel boxes lined with 15 mm of plywood and locking lids and the appropriate safety mark placards. As well, every vehicle is equipped with a dry chemical fire extinguisher, a five-gallon backpack water can and shovel for combating small fires or spills. These vehicles are the only ones authorized for transporting explosives.

It is company policy and the law that all employees handling, offering for transport and transporting explosives have been trained as per Transport Dangerous Goods (TDG) Regulations. Only those company personnel issued a training certificate, signed by the president, for TDG purposes are allowed to handle or transport explosives. In addition, it is the responsibility of the blaster or driver, as the case may be, to ensure transportation is done safely and legally. This means all safety equipment required on the vehicles is present and operational; the appropriate safety mark placards are displayed while transporting explosives and suitable documentation is completed and accompanies the vehicle whether or not transportation takes place on public or controlled access roads. It is through the shipping documents, which includes our emergency telephone number, that this company may be alerted about an emergency if the driver is incapacitated.

The geographical area of coverage for purposes of this emergency plan includes all of Vancouver Island north of Nanaimo. Transportation may take place on the following public roads:

• Highway 19 north of Nanaimo to Port Hardy
• Highway 4 west of Nanaimo to Tofino
• Highway 28 from Campbell River to Gold River

Transportation may also take place through the following communities:

• Nanaimo
• Lantzville
• Nanoose Bay
• Parksville
• Coombs
• Port Alberni
• Port McNeil
• Port Hardy and Holberg

From the magazine, we ship explosives, at a maximum of 300 kg per load, to the job site. All transportation of explosives is done during our normal working hours, 0730 to 1800 hours.

The type of problems which we may be required to respond to include:

1. Motor vehicle accident requiring simple transfer of explosives to an alternate vehicle designed for transporting explosives,
2. Motor vehicle accident with or without injuries, explosives have been scattered on and around the road bed,
3. Motor vehicle accident with fire and potential for detonation, and finally in a worst case,
4. Motor vehicle accident with a detonation.

Our actions, through advice to first responders on the scene or company personnel at the site should always be carried out keeping in mind safety of the public and personnel. Public road closures as a result of transportation accidents with explosives are inconvenient, costly and potentially very hazardous. Our aim through timely and effective action is to reduce the risk to the public, property and environment from the hazards of the explosive products we consign and carry if there ever is an accident.

This can be done by:

• undertaking accident site safety survey to identify any site hazard and establish suitable working zones and personnel exclusion zones (hot zone)
• advising first responders on the true hazards of our explosives
• transferring explosives from non operating to operating vehicles
• recovering the explosives (100% of carried inventory) by searching, locating, identifying damagedexplosives, analyzing damaged explosives for safe transport, picking up, repackaging, safely transporting the materials, disposing or arranging for same to be done
• advising first responders on fire fighting options if necessary
• advising first responders on evacuation distances, assisting them to accomplish this and in extremely urgent situations acting to do so ourselves.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE ORGANIZATION

Note: This section of the plan is used to describe who has a role in the plan and duties expected of them. Although this example uses formal titles such as President and indicates that person is the Home Co-ordinator for purposes of the plan, this level of formality is not necessary for small companies. Listing the names may be sufficient in conjunction with the duties of the individuals, however, there still is a need to identify the person that is overall in charge, those that are considered on scene co-ordinator(s) and persons that can act as technical advisors due their intimate knowledge of the explosives. It is important that the duties listed be appropriately assigned to individuals intended to do the job thus editing is necessary to reflect realistically how your company is organized.

The key personnel with responsibilities in the event of a transportation accident are as follows:
 

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