Preparing Your Business for Severe Weather and Fire Emergencies

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Chamber Amplified from the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, host Doug Jenkins dives into the topic of emergency preparedness for businesses, particularly focusing on severe weather and fire safety. Joined by Todd James from the American Red Cross and Eric Wilkins from the Findlay Fire Department, Doug explores practical steps to safeguard both employees and infrastructure during emergencies. 

The episode begins by addressing the increasing frequency of severe weather events and the necessity for businesses to proactively prepare for these occurrences. Todd James introduces listeners to the Ready Rating program, which assists businesses in self-assessing their emergency preparedness levels. He emphasizes identifying safe spaces within business establishments and the importance of communication during emergencies. Eric Wilkins further elaborates on creating fire safety plans, highlighting common oversights like fire extinguisher maintenance and evacuation procedures.

Key Takeaways:

• Ready Rating Program: A self-assessment tool by the American Red Cross helps businesses evaluate and improve their emergency preparedness.
• Communication is Key: Both internal team members and external visitors should be made aware of emergency plans to ensure efficient evacuation and safety during crises.
• Regular Plan Review: To maintain effectiveness, emergency plans should be reviewed and practiced at least annually.
• Training and Compliance: Fire extinguisher use and regular communication of evacuation procedures are vital elements of comprehensive emergency preparedness.

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

0:00:01 - (Doug Jenkins): Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. On each episode of Chamber Amplified, we're examining issues impacting the local business community. Whether it's employee recruitment, retention, marketing, it issues, it's really anything that can impact your business now or in the future. Our goal is to give our members tips each week on at least one way they can improve operations and thrive in the current business environment.
0:00:25 - (Doug Jenkins): So severe weather season is here. We haven't had anything too bad roll through the area and hopefully it will stay that. Obviously, the story's been a little bit different in other parts of the nation. And that got me to thinking, let's make sure we're ready for these types of things as a business community. And while tornadoes and severe storms are certainly scary, statistically it's fire that's more likely to be the emergency that you would face as a business. So we're going to address that today, too.
0:00:50 - (Doug Jenkins): Todd James from the American Red Cross will be with us talking about how to be ready for severe weather. And then we have Eric Wilkins from the Findlay Fire Department talking about planning for fire safety. And planning, that's kind of the key word. We're going to be delving a lot into that, what you need to include in your plan, who you need to talk to before you even start rolling the plan out, and then who to communicate that with. We'll talk about all of that here on today's podcast.
0:01:15 - (Doug Jenkins): And again, thanks for tuning in. Remember, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, you can rate and review the show. It really does help spread the word. Now let's get into it. So obviously as we record this, it's the the end of April, we're right smack in the middle of severe weather season and it's gotten off to a roaring start in parts of the United States. Certainly some places that you've, you've been on the ground for already.
0:01:39 - (Todd James): Yeah. Our friends just to the south in Kentucky, of course, have been hard hit this spring already with massive flooding on both sides of the state and tornadoes and really as well know that huge swath just across the southeast of the United States a couple of weeks back. And we are right at the start of the season. So hopefully, hopefully we've seen the worst already. But we can't really just pin our pin our hopes on that. We got to be ready for what's going to come next.
0:02:07 - (Doug Jenkins): Well, you think back a year ago and certainly Ohio was no stranger to tornadoes. I believe it was a record number of tornadoes for the year. And with that in mind, I just wanted to talk to you about having your business ready for severe weather like a tornado or even severe thunderstorm, straight line winds, things like that. It's all particularly devastating and it's really important to have a plan in place.
0:02:35 - (Todd James): It really is. And just as we do a lot of presentations that we go out and talk to businesses, organizations, communities about how to keep their homes and their families safe, you know, the same principles and the steps that we talk about, excuse me, also apply to businesses and some cases even more so. We have a great program, it's called Ready Rating and it is a free membership based program. And what it does is let businesses do a self assessment of their emergency preparedness, where they are now and do they have an emergency preparedness plan in place.
0:03:11 - (Todd James): And then once they do the self assessment, we'll get with them and give them a report on what steps they can take to get ready. And when we talk about tornado preparedness, again, some the things that we tell folks to be ready for at home is number one, you know, do you know a safe place in your home to go? That also applies to businesses. Have you identified safe places within your business where if something happens during business hours that your staff and your clients or your customers are going to have a safe place within your building or if there's not a safe place in your building, then someplace nearby where you're going to be able to evacuate to.
0:03:49 - (Doug Jenkins): So Todd, I would imagine that a lot of the same principles apply like get to an interior room, things like that. The things that probably are a little bit different. If you're in a really big facility, finding an inter room could be a little bit more difficult. Or what if you're in like a multi story office building?
0:04:06 - (Todd James): Again this is a very important reason why these discussions that are taking place before disaster happens because there is planning that has to go into it. And you're right. If you're in a multi story building, you have to make plans ahead of time because when those tornado warnings go off, you know, you might have just a couple of minutes to get someplace safely. So knowing where again some safe rooms within the building are, or if it's not a safe building to be in for some reason having a good plan of where folks are going to evacuate to. But even more importantly than that, or as important is making sure that the plan is communicated, that's a big piece of planning before emergencies happen, is that you need to make sure that not just you or maybe a few folks who put the plan together, but everybody knows what the plan is and that it's something that again, if you're a customer facing facility and you might have folks from the outside that I think you need to have a good poster there or some information so folks know that you've got a plan in place that's going to make them feel better. Also that you've taken the time to plan ahead for their safety and if something were to happen, they'll know what to do.
0:05:17 - (Doug Jenkins): I think the thing that really stood out to me here in this recent round of severe weather that hit, hit the nation was there was video from inside of a factory. I think it was in Alabama, maybe it was Arkans, something like that. And what was real eerie about it is just how calm it was inside this as a manufacturing plant during a tornado that was going through the area. And, and at first I thought that's really eerie, like you would expect people to look panic. But I think when I really thought about it, it spoke more to they probably had a plan in place. And when you have that plan in place that you talked about, you're gonna have less panic and that can lead to much better outcomes.
0:05:54 - (Todd James): That's exactly right. That is what we aim for in making sure that we do good planning before an emergency is looking for those good outcomes on the other side that hopefully everybody makes it through safely. And you know, the building can be rebuilt and all of the machinery can be fixed or replaced, but human lives can't. And that's the number one goal of an emergency plan put in place, whether it's for your home or your business, is to make sure that everybody comes out the other side safely beyond that.
0:06:26 - (Doug Jenkins): And obviously that's the most important thing. But you want to make sure that your business can get back up and running and get people back to work, all of those things. I was looking at your, your ready rating information that you sent over to me and one of the stats that stood out to me was 40% of businesses don't survive the emergency. What, when, what does that stat include? Is that just businesses straight up closing after an emergency rolls through their area?
0:06:52 - (Todd James): Honest, Doug, I'd have to go back and take a look at the information, but I believe that's what we're looking at is, you know, businesses that were affected by a disaster and you know, a year later just unfortunately aren't there anymore. And I've seen that so many times myself, you know, when we have these floods, tornadoes, fires, whatever it might be that can just sweep through a community and especially small businesses, but businesses of any size, it can be and are affected by these disasters. And if you don't have a good plan in place, you know, a continuity plan for your operation, then your chances of successfully rebuilding and reopening, I think, are greatly diminished.
0:07:33 - (Doug Jenkins): Speaking of the plan and one thing that stood out, I don't know. Did you watch that, that documentary on Netflix about the Joplin, Missouri tornado?
0:07:42 - (Todd James): I, I lived that tornado. But yeah, I watched that. That was actually my very first deployment outside of Ohio was to Joplin. So, yeah, I watched that with a lot of interest.
0:07:53 - (Doug Jenkins): Of the things that stood out to me was in a couple of businesses. Like one of the, the guys that was interviewed, he was just teenager at the time, working at an ice cream shop and trying to get people to shelter within that business as the tornado was running through. You can think back to the Van Wart tornado, I think in 2002, the movie theater that got leveled and there was a teenage employee that got people to safety and, and fortunately everyone survived there, I believe is part of the plan. Having your employees, especially if you're in a public facing business where you have people in and out all the time, how you deal with customers, if you're in a situation like that, I think.
0:08:34 - (Todd James): It very much needs to be. I mean, I would hope that, you know, every business, the goal would be that every business has a good emergency plan in place and that everybody in the business is well versed in the plan and would know what to do and would know how to direct their fellow team members and again, any outside visitors that might be in the facility at the time. And that's why, you know, you've seen those videos and we've seen them be on lots of different documentaries and shows.
0:09:02 - (Todd James): These disasters, tornadoes especially, can happen really very quickly and with a moment's notice sometimes. And unfortunately, there is this. I don't know what to call it, I don't know if it's a fascination, but, you know, folks want to kind of wait till the last second. I mean, they're watching the storm and they tend to sometimes wait until the last second to seek safety. And unfortunately, that last second will get there faster than people realize. So making sure that the employees know the plan and feel comfortable letting folks know what the plan is and how to direct them, I think is vital because as you saw in the video you mentioned, I saw that also, you know, that employee, that teenager, doing everything he could to get people to get away from the windows and the doors to get them back. And he was at that point, you know, at first was kind of struggling himself is where can we go to safety? And then, oh yeah, let's go to the fridge or let's go to the freezer. You hear those stories a lot that people just, you know, they get into a store or a gas station and the walk in freezer is the safest place to be. So that's where everybody will go into. And that may well be the safest place to be in your business.
0:10:17 - (Todd James): But that's something that again, your team needs to be aware of to know what the plan is so they can confidently and quickly get people into a safe place when the storm happens.
0:10:28 - (Doug Jenkins): Tom, once again, getting a ready rating, something that businesses should look into if they're interested in learning more or getting the process started. How can they go about that?
0:10:37 - (Todd James): You just visit our website@readyrating.org and again, it's a self assessment tool that you'll be using. We have a couple of different. There's the, the quick assessment, what we call the ready go assessment. And that's not going to take you too long. Just kind of a checklist to help you identify where your business is now in terms of emergency planning and, and would want to be. And then there's a deeper one called ready advance. And then we get into a, you know, dive a little deeper into your preparedness planning and that includes things like, you know, is your staff trained in first aid and cpr?
0:11:11 - (Todd James): Do you have AED units within your facility making sure that again, the planning that we talk about with families of putting together their emergency kit, making sure that they have several sources of good information before, during and after a disaster. Those same principles are going to apply to a business. You know, they have to be adjusted, of course, but it really is all the same three steps, which is get a kit, make a plan and be informed.
0:11:37 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely. Well, Tom, we appreciate your time on the podcast here. Thanks for joining us.
0:11:41 - (Todd James): Thank you very much. And again, if anyone has any questions, you can call our office or again go to readyrating.org it is a free program. All the information is there and we'd love to have you be a part of it.
0:11:55 - (Doug Jenkins): Welcoming into the Chamber Amplified podcast from the Findlay Fire Department Inspector Eric Wilkins. Eric, thanks for joining us today.
0:12:02 - (Eric Wilkins): Thanks for having me.
0:12:03 - (Doug Jenkins): Let's, let's talk about setting up that plan. Obviously you want to have one in place, but what are the basic building blocks to getting one started no matter what the emergency is?
0:12:14 - (Eric Wilkins): Well, there's no one Size fits all plan. I mean, you, you're. When we're talking setting up for a business, you could be talking anything from a mom and pop store to a Whirlpool or Lowe's. Distribution or not distribution, the, the store here in town. Well, the distribution center too. So you really have to look into what are your needs, how many you know, what your facilities like, what, how many people you're going to be sheltering and where is the safest place to shelter.
0:12:46 - (Eric Wilkins): There are templates on, on the web that you can use. You can contact the fire prevention office and me or Kevin Shanice, the other inspector, we can set you up and help you develop a plan.
0:13:03 - (Doug Jenkins): Who all should be included in, in putting that together? I would imagine if you have a safety officer or something like that. But even if you're like you said, a mom and pop, feels like there's probably a few people you want in on it. So everybody kind of has at least a base understanding.
0:13:18 - (Eric Wilkins): We're going to want anybody that's going to be responsible for enacting the plan. You know, yourself as a business owner or a manager, and your employees, you'll want to all want to, want to definitely be on the same sheet when, when the, the plan goes into action. And of course, if you want, you need, again, if you need help setting that plan up, you can involve us too.
0:13:42 - (Doug Jenkins): That's just where I was gonna go actually, because you've been involved in helping set up many of these plans for Findlay and Hancock county area businesses. What are some of the major people bring to you when they're trying to get them set up? What are some of the things maybe that you see that people neglect in that first draft? That was actually two questions. Okay.
0:14:05 - (Eric Wilkins): The biggest thing is, I guess the biggest question is just what do I do? How do I do this? What again, most, most of the individuals that come to me are mama pop type stores. I have, I've helped the library set one up and a few other bigger businesses, but usually it comes with, hey, we need to do this. How do I go about doing it? And that's where I, you know, the way I handle it is I bring out that template and I say, okay, how many employees do you have? Let me get a look at your facility and let's, you know, talk through how things work here. And we throw all that information into that template and, and come up with the plan.
0:14:49 - (Doug Jenkins): And it's important for people to realize this is a service you provide. So if people reach out to you and want to walk through something like this, they're not putting you out. This is what you're here to do.
0:14:59 - (Eric Wilkins): No, this is what you pay your taxes for.
0:15:03 - (Doug Jenkins): Let's talk about those things that, that people maybe overlook. What are some of the things that as you review plans, you see, oh, hey, you want to make sure you have this in there. That sometimes people, they just don't realize it's a necessary part of the plan for fire.
0:15:19 - (Eric Wilkins): A lot, a lot of individuals don't realize the requirements that the state fire code puts on them as business owners. Things like if you have an alarm system, that alarm system has to be tested annually. Same with if you have a sprinkler system and everybody has to have fire extinguishers and they just don't realize that, oh, I have to have these things tested annually. Another big thing I run into is a certificate of occupancy.
0:15:45 - (Eric Wilkins): Whenever you open a business or you make a significant change to your building, you know, you move a wall, you, you know, add a door or take out, want to take out a door, you have to contact Wood county to have them do an inspection as well as us and, and get your certificate of occupancy. I run into that a lot again, as far as weather goes, usually if they're coming to me, they don't have a plan at all. So they're just starting from scratch.
0:16:15 - (Doug Jenkins): Speaking of having the plan, it's one thing to have it and you get it finalized. Maybe you help people walk through it and everything. But then if you just put it in a lockbox or in a drawer somewhere, it's really maybe not that effective. What do people need to do after they get these plans in place?
0:16:29 - (Eric Wilkins): Well, you're supposed to by code review plan at least once a year with all of your employees. And anytime you hire somebody and you have to go over what the go go over that plan with them, those are the basic requirements. I'm not sure that once a year is really enough. I mean that's just my opinion. It the, the biggest when you read the post incident critiques of, of you know, like big fires, like we talked about the station nightclub fire. Yeah.
0:17:03 - (Eric Wilkins): There were a lot of, a lot of mistakes made in that and a lot of it was people not reacting properly to, to the fact that there is an emergency. I've been on the department for 24 years. I've gone to many alarm calls where you go into say the mall. The mall was synonymous for this. You go in, the alarm's going off, it's screaming and everybody's just still shopping, you know, and it's, it is, it is frustrating from a safety point of view. And, and the reason that happens is you as a shopper, you look at an employee and then they don't know what to do or they're not reacting. So you think, well, nothing's going on. This is just another false alarm.
0:17:46 - (Eric Wilkins): So those are the reasons that people get hurt in, in, in places where there are alarms and sprinklers and everything to keep us safe, we don't properly respond.
0:17:57 - (Doug Jenkins): I can tell you from my time working in the mall ages ago that that was always the case then as well as the alarms would go off and business would go about as usual, in fact, to the point where our district managers would be like, unless the fire department tells you to leave or you smell smoke, you just keep doing things. So that was a fun little wrinkle then. So I guess as the rank and file, what do we do?
0:18:21 - (Eric Wilkins): Right? And it, and it is, it's a tough, it's a tough situation because a lot, most, most of the time it's a false alarm.
0:18:31 - (Doug Jenkins): Right.
0:18:31 - (Eric Wilkins): But when it comes to that time when it isn't a false alarm, we have to react properly.
0:18:37 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah, that got me to thinking. So, you know, obviously the business can have the plan in place, but there might be leadership that's not in Findlay. They. Since it sounds like, or it would seem like they need to be abreast of the plans, too. That way if there is a fire alarm or something like that, they know that it hates. It's not just employees trying to skip out on a couple of minutes of work. This is the actual plan we have in place.
0:19:04 - (Eric Wilkins): Sure. And they're, they're as much responsible for the, the development and implementation. Implementation of that plan as the, as the local leadership is.
0:19:18 - (Doug Jenkins): We have been fortunate to not have any major, major incidents. How seriously do you think area businesses take their emergency planning?
0:19:30 - (Eric Wilkins): Oh, that's probably hit or miss. Some, some businesses reach out to me routinely for a review of their plans. Fire extinguisher training, which is something we also offer here. And, and I see I have, I know them by name. Other ones, I show up for an inspection, they don't know who I am and really don't want me to be there because they think I'm going to cost them money, which unfortunately is true. I often do cost money when, when I come in because I'm, you know, I'm making sure they're doing what they need to do to, you know, keep their business up to up to par with the code.
0:20:07 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah, but you are, you're just the end of that. Like, it's the. You have to follow what the code is. You aren't necessarily the guy who's like, oh, I can't wait to go. And it cost these people money. You have a code that you have to see if people are following. So unfortunately, you probably get the. Instead of the people who make the code, you're the one who gets to. To hear from people.
0:20:28 - (Eric Wilkins): Yeah, nobody asks my opinion about what goes into the code. They just want me to go enforce it.
0:20:33 - (Doug Jenkins): Of course, of course. That's how it works. Let's talk a little bit about common fire code things. No, actually, I want to go back to the. The fire extinguisher training. Walk us through that. Because it would seem, you know, we've all seen fire extinguishers, but I imagine the time that you actually need to use one, it probably doesn't work as simple as it does in your head, unless you've actually done a little training with one.
0:20:59 - (Eric Wilkins): Yeah, so we do offer fire extinguisher training and we have a trainer. It's got. It uses propane and a water mix and creates a fire. We always do it outside. Obviously, we'll get some extinguishers. We'll get. Get your individual, your business for your businesses. We get your employees and we do it first. Groups like Boy Scouts and Kiwanis or whoever wants to do it. We'll do it for anybody. And we just, we run you through, pass, you know, pull, aim, squeeze, sweep.
0:21:30 - (Eric Wilkins): We talk about evacuation and. And those things too. And we just basically try to get it to where when that time comes, that you need to use a fire extinguisher, that stuff just comes out automatically. Muscle memory.
0:21:45 - (Doug Jenkins): Let's talk about. We've talked a little bit about severe weather. We've talked about fire prevention and the fire code. First aid, I would imagine would be a part of any emergency plan to who administers it, where you're able to find your first aid kits, things like that. Is that something you help walk people through?
0:22:04 - (Eric Wilkins): We don't really do much in the way of first aid training. That's something we kind of leave to the Red Cross and perhaps Hanco could, Could answer those questions better. But yes, that is something that's important. It would be good to. A lot of times you'll see in businesses, you'll see automatic external defibrillators hanging on the wall. If you have one there. You're. You're supposed to train your people on how to use this. Not just, hey, look, I got this nice thing and nobody knows how to use it.
0:22:30 - (Eric Wilkins): And it's always helpful to know how. So I would reach out to either the Red Cross, I know they have those, those types of classes, and maybe Hanco as well.
0:22:40 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah. The last thing you want to be doing in an emergency is looking up a YouTube tutorial on how to use the equipment you need to use in an emergency. That seems counterproductive.
0:22:48 - (Eric Wilkins): Yeah, that would, that would definitely slow the process down.
0:22:53 - (Doug Jenkins): But again, as part of the plan, not only the evacuation plan, the shelter plan, all of that, but having that first aid plan and then, then you can work with the Red Cross to, to figure out what that would need to look like. But that seems to say to me that area agencies do work together to try and make sure that people are up to date on how to put together the most effective emergency plans. If people want to learn more about putting together the plan, some of the things that they need to be going over to make sure that they're ready for an emergency in their workplace. What's the best way to get in touch with you?
0:23:23 - (Eric Wilkins): They can call the fire prevention office. They can either go through the admin line or my direct number, 419-424-7814. Or you can reach me by email. J wilkinsinlayohio.gov Perfect.
0:23:37 - (Doug Jenkins): Eric, we appreciate your time today.
0:23:39 - (Eric Wilkins): No problem, anytime.
0:23:42 - (Doug Jenkins): Obviously, it's really important to have that plan in place. It's important to communicate it with your employees, maybe even practice it from time to time. That's a conversation to have with experts like Todd and Eric. I highly recommend you do that. I want to go back to that thing we talked about with, with Todd about the Van Wirt tornado that happened back in 2002 at the movie theater there. That could have been a very tragic situation, but it was an employee who got people to safety.
0:24:08 - (Doug Jenkins): I don't know that they had a plan in place. That person may have just stepped up and taken charge in the moment. Here's the thing is, you don't want to wait on something like that to happen. If you empower your employees to take charge in situations like that, outcomes can be a lot better. But that's all part of the planning process. So make sure you're doing that. And again, let us know if you have questions on it. We can always get you pointed to the right people.
0:24:31 - (Doug Jenkins): Chamber Amplified is a free podcast for the community, thanks to the investment of members from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. Because of our robust membership, we're able to focus on providing timely information to the Findlay and Hancock county business community, run leadership programs for adults and teenagers, and to be an advocate for the area. That's all while providing tools that help local businesses succeed.
0:24:52 - (Doug Jenkins): If that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, let me know and we can talk about how an investment in the Chamber really help us strengthen your business, but also the community as a whole. And that'll do it for this week's episode. If you have any ideas for topics we should cover on future episodes, just send me an email. Djenkinsindleyhancockchamber.com thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified. From the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.