Firefighters use all sorts of standard operating procedures to make their lives easier and safer. These SOPs are much more than a way to cover your proverbial backside. SOPs provide smooth and reliable operations without having to reinvent a plan for every situation. Yet few fire chiefs use SOPs for evacuations, which are some of the most demanding procedures they undertake.

Whether the threat is criminal, radiological, chemical, biological or interface related, all evacuation scenarios will benefit from preplanning because it can avoid the confusion and losses from on-the-fly planning and panic. Evacuation SOPs especially need to include how to handle situations when evacuation is not suitable. Many situations that might suggest evacuation will be better served by keeping people in their homes. A clear plan created when time is ample will really pay off when the crisis hits and every resource is stretched to, or more likely past, the breaking point.

SOPs can keep a chief out of jail. Conversely, not having them can put the chief in jail and cost him or her large sums in jury awards and Occupational Safety and Health Administration fines when a quick decision turns out bad. The assumption is that if a department has an SOP and someone does not follow it and serious losses result, that person is going to have to explain his or her actions to a group of non-fire/rescue people who won't understand why the chief couldn't make perfect, well-considered decisions with all the information that this group gathered over the two years since the incident. Those who follow the SOP will have to do much less explaining. SOPs are the accepted choice of emergency service leaders to ensure consistent, accepted and reliable performance at emergency scenes.

While chiefs are not restricted to only using the SOP, a good SOP will cover most situations and allow them to save time by already having 90% of the planning complete before he arrive at the scene. This is done by sitting in low-pressure meetings with experienced and motivated responders and planners to evaluate the situational needs and historical lessons to create strategic and tactical response plans that best meet the needs of responders and customers in most situations. The SOPs are living plans; they adjust and improve with time and experience. For help writing an SOP, visit www.disaster-info.net/carib/SOP.htm

For a specific task, start with a good general SOP that takes many hours of careful consideration to create. Then train everyone to perform the same actions every time so that responders can anticipate team members' actions and be ready to perform their own task at the right time. Any firefighter can fill any position because he or she has learned the same tactical SOPs. Modifications to the basic plan at an incident takes less time than reinventing each entire response.

So what about SOPs for evacuations? Every chief should expect to evacuate people from homes, businesses, schools, communities, or even entire regions at some point in the future. Hazardous materials can get out of hand anywhere. A stay-at-home dad can mix chlorine bleach with ammonia to get that extra cleaning power. A 20-car train derailment can release thousands of gallons of metha-ethel-death. Some kid or employee can get miffed and decide to upset the schedule at the local school or business. Wildland fire can quickly remind thousands of residents that trees, brush and houses are actually fuel.

So what is required in an evacuation plan? First, identify possible trigger events in general terms — events that might require evacuation. This provides an idea of the different levels of response and general issues to deal with. Consider things like how many people might a certain event impact and if the department would ever need to evacuate due to an earthquake, tornado, snowstorm or fire. This will help determine when to evacuate.

Similar to keeping most residents in their apartments to prevent them from walking through smoke and heat in the hallways and getting in the way while firefighters extinguish the room-and-contents fire, there are larger incidents that will be better served by keeping people in place. Schools are trending toward lock-downs rather than evacuation. Evacuation vastly increases chaos. The only reason to evacuate is if it is safer to expose the target population to the risks of moving, resettling, feeding, sheltering, treating their medical conditions, and counseling them than it is to keep them in their homes or businesses.

For nuclear, biological or chemical events, is it better to have people exposed to the hazardous materials while they flee or to keep them inside their relatively clean, controlled home environments that provide food, clothing, shelter, and working showers and toilets? In wildland fires, is it better to have panicky people driving through smoke and flame at high speeds on roads that have burning debris, rocks, or downed trees and power lines?

Even the Department of Homeland Security is beginning to stress the concept of shelter in place. The Israelis certainly learned the benefits of keeping their people in their homes during Qassam conventional and SCUD biochemical missile attacks. They have come to understand the true nature of the threats and the enormity of the system required to evacuate a populace.

Moving and caring for hundreds or thousands of displaced people places all of them at risk during relocation. Even without considering the effects of the hazard that prompts an evacuation, the injuries, deaths, assaults, thefts, rapes, illnesses and widespread psychological trauma from the move itself are very high costs. Evacuating a school and then dealing with parents who are trying to find their kids will take huge resources. Evacuating hospitals and elderly care facilities can require 12 to 24 hours, massive staff resources, dedicated transport, and specialized receiving facilities. Moving and caring for pets and livestock requires handlers, trailers, cages, veterinarians, and facilities that are specific to each species. Relocating prison and jail populations will take law enforcement resources away from other vital duties such as notification, traffic control, and control of looting. Reception areas tend to spread disease, including tuberculosis, strep, hepatitis, and influenza. And post traumatic stress disorder is frequently seen in displaced populations.

Evacuation Checklist

Is the Escape Route Ready?