Staying Put: Sheltering-in-Place When Leaving Isn’t Safe

What would you instinctively do if you thought you heard a gunshot at work?

Walk toward the sound to see what happened

Pick up the phone and call down to the front desk

Ask two or three of your co-workers to see if they heard it too

Immediately get up and get out of the building

Ignore it and go back to what you were doing

Yesterday, we looked at different scenarios that might require workers to shelter-in-place during a disaster and procedures that workers in shelter-in-place occupancies might follow. Today, we’ll look at procedures for workers to follow when leaving the building is higher risk than staying where they are.

As we discussed yesterday, shelter-in-place procedures for a hospital or prison facing an internal threat, like fire, will look different from shelter-in-place procedures for those facing an external threat, like a chemical release or an active shooter.

When Shelter-in-Place Is Safer

When it’s going to be safer for workers, customers, and clients to stay put than to evacuate, ensure that your workers know what to do.

• Know where to go. There should be designated safe areas in your facility.
• In active shooter situations, this may mean lockable rooms.
• In an environmental release situation, this may mean interior rooms with minimal windows and ventilation openings, such as closets, utility rooms, and storage rooms.

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• Gather customers and clients. Take them to the safe areas as well.
• Secure the safe area.
• In an active shooter situation, this may involve locking and barricading doors and turning off lights.
• In an environmental release situation, this may involve closing doors, windows, and air vents, and possibly sealing these with plastic sheeting and duct tape.
• Notify emergency contacts. If it is safe to do so, employees, customers, clients, and visitors should call their emergency contacts and let them know where they are and that they are safe.

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• Take a head count. Write down the names of everyone in the room, and call the designated emergency contact to report who is in the room with you, and their affiliation with your business (employee, visitor, client, customer).
• Wait for the all-clear. Law enforcement or emergency responders will let you know when it is safe to leave.

One place where you should definitely stay put is the place that will give you the best safety information: Safety.BLR.com.