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Back to Facility Manager
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Imagine these two real life scenarios: First, it’s 8:20 p.m. and the concert is already 20 minutes behind schedule. A major pop star is standing on a 200-foot platform atop the arena ready to be lowered to the floor to greet her thousands of overzealous fans. She is wearing a full body harness for fall protection and safety purposes. Unbeknownst to the fans and the arena crew, as she is being lowered to the floor, the harness around her is getting tighter and tighter as the platform descends, slowly cutting off her capacity to breathe. Panic sets in as the fans begin to realize what is happening. What do you do? Are you and your team prepared to respond? Have employees been trained to respond in emergency situations? Was the fall protection tested prior to the concert? This is a potentially life threatening emergency. In the second scenario, it is early afternoon and you’re hosting a professional hockey playoff game tonight. Your administrative assistant pages you to let you know that the US Coast Guard is on the telephone. They have traced back miles of chemical discoloration in the river adjacent to your facility. Upon inspection of the ethylene glycol holding tanks used for ice-making, you find them empty. How quickly can you respond to the emergency situation at hand, the response of the fans, and the fall-out and media attention such an event can bring? Sound outlandish? These are true stories. Never happen to you? Think again. These real-life emergency scenarios can add another realm to your duties as facility manager that can affect both the bottom line and your ability to sleep at night. A number of unfortunate incidents involving performer safety, rigging failure, arena crew worker safety, public safety, and environmental incidents have occurred at large venue entertainment facilities. These may happen during construction, set-up and breakdown, and during live performances; and they can range from minor incidents that are not widely publicized, to events precipitating serious injury and/or death. Preparation and emergency contingency planning for this type of unfortunate occurrence is a responsibility of the owners and the arena manager and staff. Establishing plans and programs and training your personnel can minimize the risk of an emergency event occurring, reduce the potential impact if one were to occur, and can help protect your assets. OSHA Requirements Planning and program development for worker safety is required under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and is administered by OSHA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. OSHA’s general duty clause requires that the employer “shall furnish to each of its employees and contractors a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to its employees.” OSHA has developed specific requirements for planning, training, recordkeeping, and response that may be applicable to your facility.
Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and your state environmental agency have developed regulations that may pertain to the activities conducted within your facility; particularly with respect to chemical release reporting and spill response, wastewater discharges, air pollution control, and waste management. Understanding the full ramifications of these requirements will assist you in preventing harm to the environment, and in avoiding potential civil penalties, fines, and negative publicity resulting from environmental violations. Without full attention to OSHA and EPA requirements, your facility’s bottom line can be negatively affected by:
According to Pat Fitzgerald, vice president of operations at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, “Business continuity after a crisis is essential. At the Gund Arena, we have taken many steps to reduce or eliminate the threat of a crisis at our facility, and have made significant strides in being prepared if one does occur. As vice president of operations, it is my goal to ensure the ‘show goes on.’ I am not aware of any facility manager that does not lose sleep over the ‘event’ that people tend to never forget – the event that causes loss of bookings, ticket revenue and concession sales, or even worse – serious injury or a fatality.” What actions can you initiate to minimize the stress and costs associated with future potential environmental, health and safety issues at your facility? Identify your facilty’s environmental and safety concerns. A third party audit of your facility’s environmental and safety regulatory compliance status may be an excellent first step in identifying risks and exposures. A compliance audit performed by a team of audit professionals that understands your industry can provide a fresh look at your facility’s operations, focusing on compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety requirements, and advising you on developing and implementing corrective actions. Corrective actions may include preparation of site specific regulatory and operating plans, developing training programs and instructing facility personnel, or making physical changes to the facility that will minimize risks.
The benefits of an environmental, health and safety audit can be amplified by a professional assessment of the facility’s management and organizational infrastructure, and its ability to provide adequate response in the event of a crisis situation. A crisis management evaluation can include assessment of the ability of the facility’s security staff, event staff, and state and local support agencies to respond to the emergency situations unique to large public assembly venues. A “what if” evaluation exercise can be performed where hypothetical scenarios, such as the ones described at the beginning of this article, are evaluated for a response that minimizes impact to the health and safety of guests, employees, and the surrounding community. The exercise will allow the facility manager to know that a foreseeable scenario could be adequately addressed by facility personnel in conjunction with outside emergency services.
No activity will completely erase your concern about adequate preparation for an environmental, health and safety issue, but maintaining regulatory compliant plans and programs, providing employee training, and performing management systems assessments for conceivable scenarios will make your job less stressful and potentially save on facility operating expenses. Never happen to your facility and you? Think again. Be prepared and sleep well. Haley & Aldrich provides environmental, health and safety compliance audits, management systems assessments and development, and geotechnical and environmental design engineering for clients nationally and internationally. The firm has provided design services to more than 25 stadiums, arenas and convention centers in the past 10 years. Haley & Aldrich is currently supporting large venue and industrial clients to provide environmental, health and safety coordination to improve facility safety, reduce potential for environmental impact, and manage operation and maintenance costs. For more information, please contact Diana Dehm Wyman at 603/498-4254 (dlde@HaleyAldrich.com) or Susan Hoertt at 937/384-9940 (shoertt@HaleyAldrich.com). |
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© 2004 International Association of Assembly Managers 635 Fritz Dr. Coppell, TX 75019 USA Phone: 972/906-7441 Fax: 972/906-7418 |
It is critical to involve such outside agencies in the evaluation so that there is a clear understanding of what may occur and the necessary chain of communication in the event of an incident. Improvements in facility plans and procedures and a clearer understanding of expectations with emergency service providers are meaningful benefits from the exercise. It is prudent to involve a public relations firm in the scenario planning and as part of your internal response team, so that potential negative publicity can be minimized. Crisis management support should also include training of facility personnel so that everyone understands his or her responsibilities in the event of a crisis situation.