Exercise Headcount: What do you do with 800 scientists who cannot return to the building they have just evacuated?

Nick Berry, Business Resilience Manager, European R&D Headquarters, Pfizer

Abstract
Annual fire drills serve a valuable purpose in ensuring familiarity with evacuation procedures. However, the limited duration of these exercises may be far from the reality of a real incident. In this situation, the ability to return back into a building may be restricted for hours or days. As an emergency manager, this raises a number of questions, including what to do with the evacuated colleagues, how to provide welfare support and how to identify those people who require the most immediate assistance. This paper focuses on these questions through a case study of ‘Exercise Headcount’. Developed in response to the situation Pfizer faced as a result of the 2007 New York steam-pipe explosion, the paper provides an overview of the post-evacuation mustering and triage system that was developed for the Pfizer Research & Development site at Sandwich, UK.

Keywords
evacuation, post evacuation, triage, welfare, exercise

Nick Berry is a business resilience manager at Pfizer’s European Headquarters for Research & Development and business continuity management liaison for the EMEA region. His responsibilities include development of the company’s UK business resilience framework, encompassing business continuity, emergency management and crisis management. Nick holds a first-class BSc in safety, health and environmental management, as well as an MSc in risk, crisis and disaster management. He is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health and a Member of the UK Emergency Planning Society. Nick also sits on the editorial board of Resilience, the official journal of the Emergency Planning Society.

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