Evacuations have saved thousands of lives in incidents ranging from small building fires to massive regional disasters. For many personnel security threats, facility evacuation is effective. In addition, for regional disasters, personnel evacuation is the important first step for families to reconvene and evacuate to another region. Leaders are responsible for ensuring that procedures for evacuation are prepared and practiced; and coordination with Human Resources, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, and Executive management should be tested and refined.
Case study Richard Rescorla
When Islamist terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 (see World Trade Center bombing, Rescorla was instrumental in evacuating the building. He was literally the last man out. He and his friend Dan Hill prepared a report that warned authorities of another attack, but was ignored. At Rescorlas insistence, all employees practiced quarterly emergency evacuations.
On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit World Trade Center Tower 1 at 8:46 a.m. (see September 11, 2001 attacks). Rick Rescorla ignored officials advice to stay put, and began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,800 employees on 20 floors of World Trade Center Tower 2, and 1,000 employees in WTC 5. Rescorla reminded everyone to "be proud to be an American", and sang God Bless America and other songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the building. Rescorla had most of Morgan Stanleys 3800 employees, as well as people working on other floors of WTC 2, safely out of the buildings by the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit WTC 2 at 9:07 a.m.
After having reached safety, Rescorla returned to the building to rescue others still inside. He was last seen heading up the stairs of the tenth floor of the collapsing WTC 2. His remains were not recovered. He leaves a wife and two children. A memorial stone was erected in Hayle to commemorate his life. We learn three things from Rescorla:
Strong situational awareness, his perceptions matched reality and he anticipated upcoming events
Selflessness, bravery, extreme determination
Exceptional leadership, he was able to save so many people because they followed his leadership in a time of stress and confusion
A biography of Rescorla, Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart, was described by Time Magazine as "the best non-fiction book of 2002".
Why Evacuation Matters
We would like to share four quick stories and then ask you a question to help drive home the point that evacuation is an important issue for senior managers to personally oversee.
My first professional job after college was at Defense Mapping Agency (now NIMA) at the Brookmont MD facility. He worked on the fifth floor, and one day they had a fire drill and it took him over 15 minutes to get out of the building. There were simply too many employees and too few stairwells. He remembers thinking "this is not good". In a real fire, people would panic and trample one another. As he drove home, he started pondering finding a new employer, if they care that little about their employees, it would be wisest to move on. Three months later he was working at a new location. This story is the genesis for one of the core concepts we teach in Management 512, SANS Security Leadership Essentials. If you are technically competent you can always find employment. The trick is to find the right employment that allows you to develop your career.
Only two years after 9/11, we were on the 24th floor lounge of the Sheraton New Orleans when the fire alarm sounded. There were about six SANS attendees in the lounge; we looked at each other and we all headed for the stairs. No one else moved. As we were descending, someone mentioned that on 9/11, only the people that started immediately to get out of the building made it. That is not entirely true, but it certainly motivated us to keep working down the stairs expeditiously. The really scary thing is, that as the six of us worked our way down, we only saw one other family enter the emergency exit. The hotel was sold out; if it had been a major fire or a terrorist act, the loss of life would have been considerable just because people did not bother exiting the building.
We teach evacuation as a small part of Security Leadership Essentials.[4] At a class at Silver Spring, we were covering that exact section talking about the importance to commit the evacuation route to memory and to test it when the fire alarm goes off. The class headed for the fire escape under our leadership. We were carrying our laptops with us, because of the sensitive data that resides on our hard drives. When we got to the exit, the stairs were so narrow, we could not fit our feet on the rungs. It was impossible to get down without holding onto both handrails. We had to jump back and put the laptops on the floor. We had known that we ought to encrypt our laptops, but it took this event to push us to do the right thing.
We were running a conference on the Disney property and while one of the instructors was teaching, another took some time off to attend a business meeting. On the way back to the Security Leadership Essentials[4] classroom, he noticed another classroom that was completely empty and all of the laptops were sitting unattended. What an incredible data risk! He was getting ready to hunt down a conference manager and ask "how can this be?" when the Disney security personnel caught up with him and briskly escorted him out of the building. While he had been gone, there had been an alarm and the building had been evacuated.
Try it now! Most people have an evacuation story, take a minute to write yours down or use one of ours. Now practice telling it and time yourself. Try not to take more than 40 seconds, we have tested all of these, you have to speak quickly with the first, but you can do it. People do not want to think seriously about evacuation and stories can make them think. As long as you can keep the story under 60 seconds there is a good chance you can keep their attention.
And finally, our question to you is, has your organization held a fire drill in the past year?
The University of Minnesota Deluth has a Word template Building Evacuation and Exit Plan (BEEP). We strongly encourage you to download, read, and either update yours or create one. Here are a few of the points they make:
Evacuation route postings should be posted near elevators and other prominent locations. Every evacuation procedure should include evacuation routes and meeting points. Each procedure should show clearly the route from the current location to the nearest exit, to a second exit, and should be able to be removed easily and carried with the evacuating individual.
The procedure should include instructions for safety techniques:
Know your exits, primary and backup
Keep your exit paths clear
Count doors to find the emergency exit
Know where the nearest fire alarm and fire extinguisher are located
Move quickly, but do not run
Remain close to the floor if smoke is present
Test doors for heat before opening
Procedures should be posted liberally throughout the work area, not forgetting auxiliary areas such as break rooms, rest rooms and lobbies. Sample procedures from UMN.edu[5] are shown below:
Remain calm, do not give in to panic
Do not ignore alarm.
Leave the building immediately, in an orderly fashion.
Do not use elevators.
Classes in session must be dismissed and students directed to leave.
Follow quickest evacuation route from where you are (see posted floor evacuation diagram/map).
Do not go back to your office area for any reason.
Proceed to the designated emergency assembly point for your area. If the designated assembly point/area is unsafe or blocked due to the emergency, proceed to the alternate assembly point.
Report to your Work Area Rep at the assembly point to be checked off as having evacuated safely; also report any knowledge you may have of missing persons.
Return to the building only after emergency officials or building monitors give the all-clear signal. Silencing the Alarm doesn mean the emergency is over
Signage should be marked clearly and printed in high contrast with a large font size. Use of the color red is highly recommended since the color is associated with emergency procedures - with the exception that the text should not be colored in a manner that makes it difficult to discern for individuals with red-green color blindness.
Meeting Point - Each procedure should identify specific meeting points for personnel evacuating from the facility. The meeting points should be within easy walking distance from their respective locations. Simple signs, "Meeting Point A", for example, should be visible for convening employees. Depending on the size of your building, you may have an initial meeting point close to the building and a secondary meeting point further away. Think worst case, what if your building falls down.
Practice - Periodic evacuations should be performed to ensure employees can execute the procedures in a genuine emergency. Employees should be required to take these drills seriously and should be subject to disciplinary action if they ignore alarms or instructions from personnel managing the drill. Employees should be trained to quickly secure sensitive materials if possible, since an emergency or false emergency could be prime opportunity for spies and saboteurs. If securing materials puts an employees life in danger, or their immediate safety is threatened, their first priority is to get to safety. Once employee testing has shown that employees can exit the building in an orderly manner and within the time frame recommended for the facility, the organization can consider conducting drills with emergency services teams. These drills, often conducted by emergency services for their own practice, accept volunteers from local businesses.
City State Evacuation
Ibibiliois a tremendous resource to plan evacuations within the USA. Every place your organization is located in should be reviewed for the natural disaster threats, and even in so called safe zones, a plan should exist to evacuate your employees. Working with your local authorities in advance to create a plan is highly advisable.
These links were tested and were working at the time this document was created. In some cases we keep a link after it is no longer available.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Trade_Center
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_attacks
3. http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Soldier-James-B-Stewart/dp/product-description/0743244591
4. http://www.sans.org/training/description.php?tid=452
5. http://www.d.umn.edu/ehso/beep/
6. http://www.ibiblio.org/rcip/evacuationroutes.html
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