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Archive for the ‘Fire’ Category
Monday, January 19th, 2009
Check out the latest new feature of the Toolkit! Scroll down past the Resources section of the right side menu bar to find a list of links to the maps that Dan has used in his training classes on service continuity. The maps are helpful for risk assessment for all regions–they add a larger picture to the very localized knowledge that most of us have about what has happened or is likely to happen in our areas. The maps in the “Risk Assessment Maps & Charts” section cover incidents of severe weather, earthquakes, wildfires, chemical and nuclear power plans, flood plains, tornadoes, among others.
![floodplainsus floodplainsus](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090130223014im_/http://nnlm.gov/webreports/ep/uploads/2009/01/floodplainsus-150x117.gif)
Posted in Disaster Incidents, Earthquakes, Fire, Hazardous Weather Outlook, Risk Assessment, Toolkit Tips | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2008
This past Friday night around 8:00PM, my family and I heard a fire truck and an ambulance head past our house. We live on a busy street, so we paid little attention. However, additional fire trucks and ambulances kept going by. Sensing that something big was happening, my younger daughter and I put on our coats and headed up the sidewalk in the direction of the rescue vehicles. Over the trees, we could see thick, white smoke billowing from the townhouses about a quarter of a mile from our house. As we got closer (well out of the way of the responders, of course), we could see yellow flames shooting up from the end unit of one of the townhouses. The unit was completely engulfed in flames. A horrible sight to witness. Tragically, we read the next morning that someone had perished in the fire.
Having two children at home, I spent a lot of time the next day reading about fire safety. (See firesafety.gov.) Most of what I read emphasized that a home fire safety plan should show two ways out of every room. On Saturday night we went over the evacuation routes for everyone in the house from every room in the house and determined a place to meet following an evacuation.
Take a look at your evacuation routes at work. Are there places along those routes that someone could get trapped by a fire? If so, revise that evacuation route. Always look for two ways out.
Posted in Fire | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
Fran Wilkinson, Interim Dean of the University Libraries at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discusses the impact of a fire at the academic library in April 2006.
Interview date: |
July 31st, 2007 |
Questions:
(1.) What happened in your community (i.e., what was the disaster/emergency)?
On Sunday, April 30, 2006 at approximately 10:51pm (one hour before the library closed and more importantly, one week before UNM’s finals week for students), a fire alarm sounded from the first basement level of Zimmerman Library. Zimmerman is the largest of the four branch libraries of the University Libraries. Although the fire was contained in the northeast section of the basement destroying over a dozen ranges of bound journals (estimated 30,000 volumes lost and 100,000 volumes removed for cleaning and restoration), there was significant smoke damage throughout the entire 280,000 square foot building including the historic West Wing. |
(2.) How did the library respond? How did the librarian respond? Were there non-traditional (unusual) roles that the librarian performed?
Library and University Response
University Libraries (UL) personnel safely evacuated the entire facility within minutes. Three stations of the Albuquerque Fire Department, UNM Campus Police, and other key response personnel were immediately dispatched to the library. Key members of the University Libraries Disaster Recovery Assistance Team (D.R.A.T.) were also immediately called. The Associate Dean, Fran Wilkinson, and the Facilities Manager, Ed Padilla, were onsite within an hour after the fire started and provided critical information to the Fire Marshal, Campus Police, UNM’s Physical Plant and Safety and Risk Services. These two DRAT members remained on site the entire night monitoring the situation, reviewing pertinent parts of the UL’s disaster preparedness plan, and preparing an outline of the actions needed in the coming days and weeks. The Associate Dean notified members of Libraries’ D.R.A.T. and activated the phone tree to notify other essential personnel. The first D.R.A.T. meeting was called for 8:00 a.m. the next morning.
The D.R.A.T. meeting resulted in immediate plans to redeploy the 100 plus employees who normally work in Zimmerman Library including faculty/librarians, support staff, administration, and student employees. A fire recovery command center was established in a branch library (Centennial Science & Engineering Library) and all efforts were coordinated from there. Services to students and faculty were fully coordinated including:
- Reference service stations were set up in the Student Union building and the Student Services building with full electronic access to information services through the use of laptops and cell phones (first day after the fire).
- Notification to students and faculty about the closure of Zimmerman and where to find alternative services was sent through several internal electronic and print methods.
- Information stations/tents at both entrances to Zimmerman Library were staffed to answer questions and direct customers to alternative service sites.
- UL InterLibrary Loan department set up temporary offices and began providing access to books and journals normally located in Zimmerman.
- Online book paging system was set up that gave access to collections not unduly affected by smoke damage with a 24-hour turn around time.
Over the next few weeks, all journals, microforms, and newspapers located in Zimmerman Library were removed by the company hired to manage this aspect of the damage (BMS-CAT). Those collections remain in Ft. Worth, Texas undergoing remediation services (They are expected to be returned during the Fall 2007 semester. The reconstructed basement is scheduled to reopen in early in the Spring 2008 semester.)
Unusual Roles
The role and responsibilities of every UL employee were impacted by the fire in some way whether specifically involved in the recovery or by adding to an employee’s overall volume of work. All provided information about the fire and directed our customers to the alternative services in place. Many stepped in to staff the reference desks around campus. Our IT offices were located in the basement but fortunately, all servers were located off-site in the campus-wide IT facility, so no loss of data or access to online catalogs or websites were experienced. The library IT staff quickly began working to install new desktop and laptop computers for all displaced employees and for the temporary public services information desks. Our accountants processed the first payroll after the fire on time in spite of having to process it manually in a temporary location. Staff and students volunteered for the book paging system. This required them to wear hard hats and masks, working only two hours at a time on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building to avoid excessive exposure to smoke damaged areas. A few key employees were called upon to coordinate the difficult job of sifting through the thousands of bound journals that were not completely burned to determine which were still salvageable - a job that required a hard hat, a respirator, and boots! Facilities staff also assisted with the removal of all journals, microforms, cabinets, shelving, equipment, and furnishings in the basement. All of the employees who normally work in Zimmerman worked in unfamiliar environments as they relocated in one of the other branch libraries, often at make-shift desks and shared computers. The employees who do not work in Zimmerman shifted their work spaces to make room for these redeployed employees - and always with grace and humor. We should add that approximately one-third (about 50 individuals) of all the displaced employees still have still not returned to their normal work environments as the rebuild of their spaces is currently underway. We anticipate their return in late 2007.
An unusual aspect to the recovery was that Zimmerman Library’s alarm system was only partially functional after the fire. The Fire Marshall permitted reoccupation of the building, but only if a manual “fire watch” was deployed until the alarm services were fully operational again. This involved scheduling individuals to patrol all areas of the building during our hours of operation. The fire watch squads were outfitted with hard hats and air horns and were tasked with alerting the building’s occupants at any sign of fire. UL employees were called upon to provide fire watch duty of up to five hours per week. More than three months later, fire watch duties were turned over to a security agency. |
(3.) How has the library (or the services provided) changed as a result of these events?
Our recovery efforts have led to several innovations that are still used today including unique workflows, streamlined procedures, and synergistic work unit configurations. The rebuilding process also provided several opportunities to improve work unit and public spaces including a marked increase in public computer stations, group study space, as well as better access to collections.
The basement area that burned will be fitted with a new compact shelving system thanks to funding provided by the state legislature and UNM’s administration, dramatically increasing needed collection space. Our collection losses also allowed for some creative thinking on the part of faculty in the various departments whose collections were affected. These scholars and researchers will provide input regarding which of the lost bound journals can be replaced electronically and which can be stored remotely, again, saving much needed space.
A fire loss of this magnitude also brings out the best in a library’s established contributors, the community at large, and other library professionals. We experienced an outpouring of help from each of these groups and have established relationships that will continue to grow. |
(4.) What, in your opinion, are the roles for libraries (and librarians) in disaster planning, response and recovery efforts?
Libraries and their employees must play primary and instrumental roles in every aspect of emergency preparedness, planning, and recovery. Policies, response teams, priorities, and resources should be established, tested, and then revisited on a regular cycle. This has been the UL’s practice since the mid-1990s. These elements are critical to ensure first rate functionality of the facility and continuance of first rate services to our customers. I believe that every library employee has a critical role to play in the response to and recovery from a disaster affecting the library and its customers. Some of those roles are small and some are huge, but none are less than essential. |
(5.) Please describe the nature of your relationship with emergency agencies or groups.
The UL has long-held working relationships with the State Fire Marshall Office, the UNM Fire Marshall, the UNM Safety and Risk Services, its Physical Plant Services, UNM Campus Police, Office of Capital Projects, Architects, Engineers, and various emergency response suppliers and contractors. Through our Administration and Facilities Services departments we constantly update and strengthen these ties. The UL also maintains a Preservation Committee and several members of the UL staff and faculty belong to the New Mexico Library Association’s New Mexico Preservation Alliance. Both of these committees are actively involved in disaster response and recovery planning and provide advice to other libraries throughout the state. |
Posted in Disaster Incidents, Fire, Lessons Learned | No Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Lian Ruan, Adam Groves, Diane Richardson, and Brian Brauer from the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discuss the provision of information to disaster responders.
Interview date: |
June 28, 2007 |
Questions:
(1.) How has the library/librarian been involved in disaster response?
The Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been involved in fire emergency service and disaster response because its parent organization - the Illinois Fire Service Institute - is a Statutory State Fire Academy. The Library mission is to provide fire and emergency library and information assistance and services to IFSI instructional staff, students, Illinois fire departments and firefighters, and other fire/emergency-related users in the successful and effective performance of their jobs. The Library’s Outreach Program provides no-cost library programs and information services to firefighters and emergency responders in Illinois (Lian Ruan).
While the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library has not been directly involved in disaster planning, response, or recovery efforts, the IFSI Library directly supports the training, education, and research efforts of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, the state fire academy on the University of Illinois campus. In terms of the scope of training, IFSI held more than 1,300 courses attended by more than 48,000 first responders at 375 locations in 100 counties throughout Illinois between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006. During that same period, the IFSI Library had more than 4,000 reference transactions, many related to the training efforts aimed at the first responders.
By providing information resources to first responders throughout Illinois, librarians at the Illinois Fire Service Institute are part of a chain of individuals (including curriculum developers, instructional support, and instructors) who indirectly contribute to disaster planning, response, and recovery efforts (Adam Groves, IFSI Archivist and Metadata Librarian). |
(2.) What do you feel are the roles for libraries/librarians in disaster planning, response and recovery?
Through our practices, services, research and user feedback, we have discovered that the roles for libraries/librarians in disaster planning, response, and recovery are significant and critically important. Ruan and Smith conducted a research project funded by the 2003 Special Libraries Association Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant and 2004 Campus Research Board Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They did a survey among six fire libraries in the United States. 343 user respondents of six libraries, representing both training and research institutions in fire service evaluated the impact of the information received in response to a request for some information from their special library related to a recent decision-making situation. One finding is shown here:
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090130223014im_/http://nnlm.gov/DOCUME%7E1/vardelle/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
Their research findings demonstrate the vital and integrated roles libraries can play in their organizations and the direct impact on training, research and emergency response with information services to meet users’ changing needs (Lian Ruan).
The IFSI Library has received nine LSTA (Library Service and Technology Act) grant awards in the past ten years to improve its services, collection and technology infrastructure to serve Illinois firefighters and emergency responders. The most recent grant project is entitled “In Memory of Our Heroes: Developing a Digital Image Collection of Illinois Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths (IFLODD)” (http://www.fsi.uiuc.edu/content/library/IFLODD/). It aims to collect, organize, digitize, preserve, and provide access to historical and cultural materials that document the ultimate sacrifice of more than 700 Illinois firefighters over the past 150 years.
It digitizes photographs, newspapers, fire station logbooks, and other resources that detail these tragedies for inclusion in an online database. It provide access to this history memorializes the firefighters to increase awareness of firefighters’ sacrifice
It supplies contemporary firefighters with valuable “lessons learned” from the various deaths to enhance the educational endeavors of firefighters and help prevent future tragedies. It helps build new relationships with historical societies and fire museums
(Lian Ruan). A new library building is under planning to support the library’s further development and further IFSI mission to help Illinois firefighters and emergency responders.
Libraries can be of help in disaster planning by creating pathfinders to related resources, such as the Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness (http://www.phpreparedness.info/index.php) created by New York Academy of Medicine, or the Bioterrorism Resources pathfinder (http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsu/resources/Bioterrorism.shtml) created by the Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois-Urbana (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian).
Also, librarians can play a role by acquainting themselves with special libraries that have emergency response collections and by familiarizing themselves with the resources these libraries make available to those involved in emergency management. Such collections may not be fully represented at OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) so extra effort is sometimes necessary to locate individual items. Facilitating access by local patrons to these collections through interlibrary loan is important service libraries can perform (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian).
When a disaster happens, libraries can provide computer access and contact information for disaster relief agencies and for local organizations and governmental entities that may be involved in recovery (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian). |
The following question was addressed to Brian Brauer, Assistant Director, Illinois Fire Service Institute. His response follows.
(3.) How has the IFSI Library supported the training of new firefighters?
Over 110 firefighters a year die or are killed in the line of duty. These painful lessons often carry with them critical lessons that allow trained firefighters to avoid repeating the situation that caused the death. In order to learn from such history, it requires a degree of study. In 2003, the IFSI Certified Firefighter II Academy began to use the IFSI Library to incorporate study of these fatalities into the program. Each student is required to, as a member of a team, complete an analysis of one of several fire fighter Line of Duty Death (LODD) cases. The students prepare a presentation back to the class that incorporates library research about the fatality and compares it to current “best practices” in the fire service and at IFSI. The library assists the students by guiding their research without doing it for them. There are videos, DVDs, recent and historical magazine and newspaper articles as well as state and national reports for the students to review and compile into a cogent story of what conditions led to the fatality, and their recommendations for prevention. Without the IFSI library, the student projects would be limited to internet sources, and not have the depth and character required to pay respect to the fallen firefighter in the quest for sharing information through careful study. |
Posted in Disaster Incidents, Fire, Lessons Learned | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
The National Fire Protection Agency has published a planning guide for evacuating people with disasbilities. Here’s a description of the guide:
“It provides information on the five general categories of disabilities: mobility impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, speech impairments, and cognitive impairments. It also outlines the four elements of evacuation information that occupants need: notification, way finding, use of the way, and assistance.
The Guide features a checklist that building services managers and people with disabilities can use to design a personalized evacuation plan. The annexes give government resources and text based on the relevant code requirements and ADA criteria.”
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Click here for a nice update on the recovery efforts at the Georgetown Public Library in the District of Columbia.
Posted in Fire, Recovery | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
Yesterday, a fire swept through the Georgetown Public Library, a branch of the public library system in Washington, D.C., causing significant damage. For a report of the incident, see this article from libraryjournal.com.
![georgetown.gif](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090130223014im_/http://nnlm.gov/webreports/ep/uploads/2007/05/georgetown.thumbnail.gif)
Posted in Fire | No Comments »
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