Posts by Rob French

Understanding the earthquake magnitude scale can be a challenge. Exponential scales are not something we encounter often in daily life. The difference between a magnitude 6.0 and a magnitude 7.0 earthquake may not seem like much, but it represents a 33-fold increase in destructive power; and an 8.0 earthquake releases nearly 1,100 times more energy…

For National Preparedness Month, we want to share the common mistakes and pitfalls we see in preparedness and life safety programs. Having worked with thousands of properties, corporations, and government agencies over the past 40 years, we’ve seen our share of strengths and weaknesses. The Six Most Common Mistakes Assuming your staff is well trained.…

National Preparedness Month Week 1: Life Safety Checklist   Because most workplaces have been largely empty for the past 18 months and life safety programs were put on hold, this year’s National Preparedness Month is more important than ever. With buildings beginning to reoccupy this fall, now is an excellent time to review and jump…

The convergence of two recent trends – more intense heat waves and more frequent power failures – could make the next large-scale disaster in the United States a power failure during a heat wave, a disaster that could cause thousands of deaths. Extreme heat is already the deadliest form of extreme weather in the United…

As detailed in a previous post, the new hybrid workplace and a shift to more hoteling and drop-in space creates significant challenges for a facility’s emergency preparedness and life safety program.  The trend presents two main issues: Live training and drills are less effective when a large percentage of employees are not on site on…

While the seismic risk in North America declines significantly as you move away from the West Coast, earthquakes have a way of striking where they’re not expected. Buildings in Miami recently shook from a 7.7 magnitude earthquake between Cuba and Jamaica. Virginia was not considered earthquake country until 2011, when it experienced a 5.8 earthquake…

The much-heralded shift to a hybrid workplace model, where employees will spend only part of their time in the office and the rest of the time working remotely, offers many advantages. However, it also creates significant challenges for maintaining effective office life safety programs.  Property Managers, Fire Safety Directors, and even local Fire Departments will…

Virtual Reality is proving to be extremely useful for far more than just running fire drills during the pandemic period.  Buildings deploying SafetyNet VR plan to use it for routine life safety training and ongoing fire drills over the long run. To date, office and medical research buildings in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,…

As noted in Markets Insider and the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Russell Investments Center will soon be the first commercial office building in the world to conduct fire drills through virtual reality (VR). With the COVID-19 pandemic making traditional fire drills impractical, the Seattle high-rise opted to deploy AK’s new virtual reality technology to help ensure its occupants know how to respond in an emergency.   The 42-story commercial office…

Traditional fire drills, which require hundreds of building occupants to gather in stairwells and in assembly areas, are problematic during a pandemic. Even after public officials authorize a return to full occupancy, tenants in high-rise office buildings will remain leery of participating in drills for the foreseeable future. To help buildings maintain their life safety…