Email Enquiry

Procedure Request: Shelter in Place/Evacuate

Initial Email Enquiry –

We are looking for a reference (e.g., refinery procedure, standard, etc.) which details guidance for office building occupants actions (e.g., shelter in place, evacuate, etc.) in the event of an adjacent hydrocarbon gas release which effects the building (i.e., hydrocarbon detectors activate building alarms). Any help/examples are welcome.

1^st Response –

Although not exactly what you need you may remember the following cascade from a the British Medical Journal which was interesting

View / download BMJ Evacuation Decisions in a Chemical Air Pollution Incidents: Cross Sectional Survey (PDF doc.)

2^nd Response –

Gent due to the Texas incident the company has removed all temporary cabins from hydrocarbon sites and is looking at relocating all non essential staff to buildings away from the main site I.e. 7 miles away, all other staff are based in a blast proof building.

3^rd Response –

You may want to have a look at National Steering Committee on Warning and Informing the Public (NSCWIP) www.nscwip.info/index.htm. I know it deals mainly with SIP for the public but in this situation office workers on a refinery complex are probably no different to office workers next to a refinery. There are some very knowledgeable people in this group. If you don't have any luck with the contacts on the website, email me and I can give you some additional contacts.

I think that the procedure need to be flexible to take into consideration a number of factors, including; the risk of imminent explosion that would severely damage the building, expected duration of release and nature of release, effectiveness of "shelter rooms" and duration of fresh air available, resources available to enable an evacuation if required, procedure for returning to normal operations, to mention just a few parameters.

On the topic, I also have a paper written by some folk at the USEPA on "Effectiveness of expedient sheltering in place in a residence" which is quite interesting, if anyone is interested they can contact me directly.

4^th Response –

You can find quite a fair bit of information on IPP in Singapore Civil Defence website www.scdf.gov.sg.

End of email correspondence on Topic to date.

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