Experience on Emergency Response Guide

Ready-made emergency response guidelines are never standard answers to be memorized, but "error insurance" for all handlers. A truly useful emergency response capability is the adaptability to ingrain the guidelines into muscle memory and be able to jump out and adjust flexibly when encountering problems. There is no absolutely correct handling process, only the optimal solution adapted to the scene.

It's a bit embarrassing to say it. When I first joined the job, I memorized the guide better than the college exam center. I could even report the types of fire extinguishers corresponding to different fire conditions in seconds. When I encountered smoke coming from the oven on the first floor of a store for the first time, I stood at the door in a daze for half a minute with the fire extinguisher in hand. The guide said to first confirm whether the power supply was cut off, but the store owner was so scared that he ran out. I couldn't ask him to go back and turn on the switch, right? Finally, I confirmed through the glass that the power strip had been fried and tripped, and then rushed in to spray the dry powder. After that time, I knew that the entries on paper could never keep up with the variables on site.

There are actually two voices in the emergency circle that are very noisy now. One is the standard camp, saying that the guideline process must be strictly followed, and no step is wrong, otherwise there will be no basis for accountability if something goes wrong. The other camp is the practical camp, saying that the guideline is a bottom line for inexperienced people, and those who are really capable of handling can adjust their priorities according to the on-site situation. I attended a training session at the Municipal Emergency Management Bureau before, and two lecturers held these two views. The lecturer from the fire protection system repeatedly emphasized that the first reaction of ordinary people when encountering a fire is to evacuate and call the police.

The smoke coming out of the shared charging pile on the first floor last summer just brought the contradiction between these two views to the fore. I had just walked to the entrance of the first floor of the building when I smelled the smell. According to the guide, my first reaction should be to go to the main gate of the power distribution intermittent charging pile, and then call the colleague on duty to get a fire extinguisher. As a result, a delivery boy who had just finished picking up the meal rushed over with a dry powder fire extinguisher, and sprayed it out twice on the smoking battery pack. Later, during the review, some people said that he was not in compliance with the regulations. He went up to complain without confirming that the power was cut off. Who would be responsible if he got an electric shock? But we later checked the battery manufacturer's test report. If the spray was delayed for 20 seconds that day, the lithium battery would have entered thermal runaway. Not to mention electric shock, the entire smoke exhaust system on the negative floor might not be able to exhaust all the toxic fumes. More than 2,000 people were evacuated from the entire building, and the business losses of the merchants alone were six figures. To be honest, where would I have time to go through the process at that time?

Later, I specifically checked the public statistics of the Emergency Management Department. It was found that 82% of small safety emergencies were handled by the first witness within 30 seconds of the incident. More than 70% of the handling actions did not fully match the standard guideline process, and most of them were adjusted based on the existing conditions on site. This can actually explain the problem: the guide is originally a common experience summarized from countless accidents, but every emergency scene is unique. You can't just use the process of the last office building fire and apply it to the scene of this water pipe burst, right?

I often tell my new colleagues that the emergency guide is like the road map for subject three when you take the driver's license test. When you practice, you have to brake and turn at certain points. When you are on the road and encounter an electric car that suddenly comes out, you can't think about "which step should I take now?" It is better to brake first. The guide is there to support you, not to put you in shackles.

Now in my own emergency guide, the blank spaces are filled with things that are not in the guide: the key to the main gate of the charging pile on the first floor is in the red box in the second drawer of the guard booth. There are three pregnant women in the yoga studio on the third floor, and two elderly people with mobility difficulties in the physical therapy center on the sixth floor. During evacuation, people must be arranged to pick them up. The door of the fire escape is easy to freeze in winter, and it must be pushed twice a week during building patrols. This kind of detailed information, which is only available in our building, is something that can come in handy in real trouble. It is more useful than memorizing the guide 100 times.

Oh, by the way, the takeaway guy who helped us spray the fire extinguisher last time, we later gave him a free parking coupon for half a year. He said that he had been a safety officer in a factory before and knew some fire protection knowledge. He should not watch it explode when he encountered it. You see, there is no perfect solution that follows the guidelines. It is just a matter of people who know some rules and are willing to take an extra step at critical moments.