Safety orientations and Briefings.  I’m standing before you describing some hazards and exposures that may exist.  I’ll likely share written safety policies and/or standards from your company, organization or agency. The depth and length of the orientation/briefing will be driven by the type and severity of the event.  

The course “Safety Guidelines for First Responders & Disaster Workers” is a massive undertaking.  We have straddled the very edges of lessons learned, situational awareness and determining the best way to share that vital information with you.

How do we get you past, showing up to this course with a pre-notion that you have nothing to gain?  It might take a huge leap of faith.  Most responders have and will sit through scores of safety orientations and action briefings. What makes this course any different? We strive to let you gain insight into what is found between the lines. Things that get lost in translation or something that is not fully disclosed.  You should know everything you possibly can to assure your safety.  If and when things come apart at the seams, what are the next steps? Is the communication clear?  These are things that should be discussed in an open orientation and briefing.

As seasoned as you might believe yourself to be, make sure you bring a little humility to the table and understand none of us can know everything. Going through scores of previous orientations and briefings doesn’t mean this one will be the same. This could be the one that saves your life.

“Your time is valuable and limited, so don’t always wait for information to flow to you. Make sure you inquire if you have not been provided enough information to perform your assigned functions.”
—Bill Heulsenkamp

Make sure you speak up and inquire as to clarification of any part of the project your involved in that is not clearly explained or understood. For as fluid and forever changing as some incidents might be, take a breath and ask for something to be repeated so you can assure it is correct.

Safety orientations and major safety briefings are one of the first places; common responders of all types will meet.  With our current pandemic meetings might be a bit less personal but still the most significant place to secure the information one needs.  

Many groups and organizations will foster the use of online presentation, webinars, video conferences and mass online meetings to help us to get to know one another a bit better.

Most seasoned veteran responders will take an effective safety orientation and briefing to heart.  They understand that gathering together all the details and guidance in a response or recovery operation is what keeps them grounded in the reality of the emergency or disaster site.

Securing your situational awareness is paramount. Know where you are and what you’re dealing with

Guessing is not an option one can afford to carry along with them in these unforgiving environments.  Even on the surface, when things seem calm and “Normal”, there can exist on the other-side of a site’s façade exposures and dangers that can alter or end your life all together.

Stay informed.  If you ever miss an orientation or briefing, it will be worth your while to catch a repeat of them.  Most properly structured events will either hold them as recorded tools (video or audible) that you can use to assure your being informed.

The Safety Guidelines for First Responders and Disaster Workers’ serves as a most inclusive baseline safety orientation package that includes much more than just your standard pitch for you to behave in a safe manner.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it making mistakes that shouldn’t be made”

—Mike Pitt

When you complete this safety guidelines course, you will know and be more cognizant of scores of variables that may impact you. Give pause to know that there is a great deal more to explaining to you what safety is and how to include it as an integral part of your every moment’s behavior.  These are learned traits. Take the time necessary to embrace them.  This should become a new mindset for you that will prove to be the most effective way to ensure your safety and life, as well as the health and lives of those around you.

If you take the time necessary to become knowledgeable in these safe practices, it will most assuredly provide you more time and a healthy outcome for your future.

No one single orientation document can be a catchall, for all possible events, scenarios, circumstances which may present themselves in an emergency/disaster event. Simply labeling such a guideline as “ALL HAZARDS” does not imply that it would hold all the possible combinations of perceivable content.

OBJECTIVE:
To provide new, returning or inexperienced personnel with “EVENT SPECIFIC” adequate basic safety awareness and too inform them of specific details regarding hazards present. It is to enable them to effectively perform assigned duties and tasks in a safe manner. Too strive to create safer working environments and conditions, even in the midst of a disaster. Such orientations and briefings are directed to full time and part time responders. It also serves as a record of training for responders.

Providing personnel awareness of the health and safety hazards, infrastructure, transportation and health issues, etc. they may encounter will help serve as a control measure, affecting their safety and the safety of others.

A properly provided safety orientation demonstrates the moral obligation that should be present to protect responders from harm. We will share what the realities of the command structure might be and how it changes when the magnitude demands more than we can offer.

Who Performs Safety Orientations and Safety Training?

There will typically be a designated safety officer/trainer or supervisor. These individuals will normally be working through an event’s Incident Command Staff. They should be well versed in the hazards and exposures of the event you might find yourself in.

It is a common practice to have Safety Officers, etc. separated from the operational tasks and functions of a response or recovery. They are then able to focus on the potentially ever changing environment, hazards and exposures (example, weather conditions).

Specialists or Subject Matter Experts may be called upon to train for specialized threats such as radiological, biological, explosives, etc. We don’t like throwing around the term expert, especially when virtually anything can change in an emergency/disaster event. With such vulnerabilities looming, we must draw upon the knowledge certain individuals hold with respect to a specific subject matter. i.e. industrial hygienist, hazardous materials or utility specialist, etc.

Orientation Key Elements:

Orientation Length: It should be long enough to disseminate all the information and data necessary to help assure personnel safety from known or perceived hazards. If the orientation is too long or extensive, the orientation should be broken up into tolerable segments or lengths.

What Occurred?:
Can the event or conditions be repeated, or escalate?

The Unexpected: What is the likelihood of an unexpected extraneous act occurring which would adversely affect an existing emergency or disaster
event.

 The Personal Element: (Position Description) The most important person at an orientation is you. You’re here! What is your role(s) or assignment(s) within the event? We all have personal comfort levels coming into a new job, task or assignment. We each bring different experiences with us and may have different learning needs.

Contact Information: Each individual should go through or have gone through an indoctrination process which include gathering personal information and other pertinent information relevant to their position within the event. i.e. Obviously, names, addresses, phone numbers, emergency contact information, background checks, etc.

Within each “Position Description”, each individual should have a formal outline of their respective job responsibilities”. If an individual does not have a clearly defined understanding of what is expected of them, they will not perform to their full potential.
It should include but not be limited to the tools, equipment and resources needed. Rights and

Responsibilities should also be part of the personnel data. Inform the individual of the responsibilities of employers, event management and others to help assure their safety and well being while they are actively involved in an event.

Safety Specific Orientations:
What are the principle safety concerns related to this event(s) and how are they being dealt with?
• Downed power lines (Always assume they energized)
• Debris, unstable structures
• Hazardous Materials, etc.

Incident Action Plans / Briefings: (Refer also to Incident Action Reports portion in the section on communication)

Weather and Environmental Considerations: Weather and environmental conditions can change and quickly and may adversely impact operations. What will your exposure be, and how can that exposure be minimized? There should be a constant review with such information being communicated out to all personnel. This information should be disseminated continually and upon newly developing circumstances. Concerns such as weather or environmental impact should be communicated out into the field in real time should it be warranted.

Scheduled and Daily Briefings:
Updates on all facets of disaster operations
• What has changed?
• What has been achieved?
• What has been lacking?

The Disaster Environment:

What is the geographical layout of the damaged or impacted area? A description of the impacted area(s) is critical to field operations. Whether it has been due to floods, fire winds, tornadoes; storms, hazardous materials. No matter what the source of the damage, a description of the geographical locations impacted is vital to safety awareness. An impacted area may be confined to a centralized locations or it may have hit several areas and created pockets of destruction and damage.

Regardless of the picture, responders should have full knowledge of impacted areas. This information may change significantly (and often), especially if the event is still on-going such as with flooding, fires, etc. does.

If you are one of the first to inspect an area, you will need the knowledge and guidance as to how you are to perform your assessments, where to start. A grid system will likely be established and implemented through the IC and Operations.

Site navigation: Getting the lay of land. What are the recognized safest routes and modes or passage? Street signs and landmarks might be missing. GPS: locators are great tools if they are available. You can hope for a signal and yet communication is sometimes one of the first things to be lost. (Refer to the section on Disaster Sites)

Disaster Operations:
Before responders start working with new staff on a new task, those personnel should receive proper orientation on procedures, tasks or concerns including such areas of concern as Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE). 9-11 was a staunch reminder of how the lack of or proper selection of PPE can have consequences. Even later in the event PPE finally did become available that responders were found either not using them or taking them off when they became intolerable to work with.

If it is recognized that respirators or other PPE can only be tolerated for short or limited periods of time, personnel rotation should then be incorporated to help minimize exposure to a negative environment.

While you are performing your tasks and assignments, what external operations, projects or services are being performed or scheduled?

How might that impact your role? Will one operation slow down another or will there be duplicated efforts. At times you will become the eyes and ears for operations and the IC. Your feedback on what you witness in the field may become more beneficial than you might know.