Insights

(Chicago) – KVCL Safety, Inc., the Chicago market leader in fire and life safety training, has been acquired by AK Preparedness, a national emergency preparedness planning and training firm. “Combining our operations with AK makes great sense at this point in our company’s evolution,” says Leo Cox, a KVCL founding principal. “We’ve partnered with AK…

It’s been quite a year for natural and man-made disasters in this country: the costliest wildfire season in US history, three Category 4 hurricanes, and the worst mass shooting in US history to name a few. At least 16 natural disasters made the billion-dollar-damage list, tying the record set in 2011. This month alone, more…

The last in our 3-part series on the core emergency response procedures, this post focuses on building evacuations. Background While full building evacuations are the norm for low-rise and many mid-rise properties, they are rare in high-rises, and for good reason.  As we discussed in our post on Internal Relocation, it is usually unnecessary to…

What is Internal Relocation? Internal relocation is the most common of the three core response procedures in high-rise buildings.  The standard response in a fire alarm activation, internal relocation involves moving occupants from floors near an incident to a safer floor below. Because modern construction methods, detection devices, and suppression systems are so effective at…

The basics One of the major changes in emergency preparedness over the past 15 years has been the growing importance of shelter in place.  While those in earthquake and tornado country have long relocated to more protected areas inside a building, in recent years shelter in place has emerged a critical core response procedure nationwide,…

With the Great ShakeOut approaching on October 19, in addition to holding an earthquake drill, building and facility teams may want to consider practicing their post-earthquake safety check procedures. Because the default response to an earthquake is for office building occupants to shelter in place, building engineers and other staff need to quickly conduct a…

With The Great Shakeout quickly approaching, many buildings and organizations are considering holding an earthquake drill. But what does that involve? When planning a drill, first determine how extensive you’d like it to be.  Will it only include your organization or the entire building or campus? Will you provide earthquake response training or distribute resources…

With September being National Preparedness Month, and with so many recent disasters fresh in our minds, we thought compiling a list of good planning resources would help property/facility teams ensure their emergency response plans are up to all the challenges. For individuals and families, both the Red Cross and Homeland Security offer a wide array…

1 How To Create An Emergency Response Plan In preparation for National Preparedness Month, happening in September, we will be publishing a series of articles sharing tips for businesses and buildings to create and implement a successful emergency response plan. Whether you’re preparing your first or updating an existing emergency response plan, the basic process…

As our thoughts and prayers go out to those struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey’s destruction, as we watch images of neighbors helping neighbors, we are reminded of a central truth in emergency preparedness: when we have an isolated emergency at our building, help will arrive quickly.  But in a major regional emergency, no help…