A Guide to Emergency Shutdown Procedures

Effective emergency procedures should take into account a number of crucial factors. Employees that understand and are trained in the emergency procedures are much more likely to be able to cope in a real-life emergency situation.

As the HSE mandates, your procedures must consider:

• Plans for emergency shutdown or isolation of the plant, machinery, or processes. Shut-off valves and electrical isolators should be clearly marked.

• Does your site have 25 tonnes or more of dangerous substances on the premises? If so, you must notify the fire and rescue service and establish appropriate warning signs.

• Have you planned and done risk assessments for emergency scenarios? You should consider the types of emergency that might unfold and how the alarm will be sounded. It’s also important to take into account employment patterns such as night, shift, and weekend working in planning for emergencies.

• If there is an emergency, there should be a clear plan for contacting the emergency services such as fire and rescue. You can help the emergency services by drawing a plan of hazardous substances on site.

• Do you have enough emergency exits? They should be clearly marked and free of obstructions. There should be adequate lighting in the event of an emergency.

• Have you considered who is in control in an emergency situation? That person or persons should have the skills and knowledge about health and safety requirements to deal with an unexpected event.

Fire evacuation procedures should be as clear as possible. Employees should be trained in the evacuation protocol. They should remain calm in the event of fire, and raise the alarm at the nearest alarm point immediately and by shouting ‘fire’. They should be trained not to open a door that has smoke coming from underneath it. The fire evacuation plan should contain details of an assembly point area where employees and any visitors or contractors on the site evacuate to. They should comply with all instructions from the fire warden in the event of a fire. 

The fire warden must contact the fire brigade and begin the evacuation plan when the alarm has been sounded. The warden should send employees and any visitors to the fire assembly point. They should take a roll call of all people in the building. If anyone is missing, they should inform an officer from the fire brigade. The fire warden must also make sure no one returns to the building until the fire brigade says it is safe to do so.

Workers should understand the importance of emergency procedures in the workplace. They should begin with raising the alarm about the emergency and informing everyone on site, including contractors, members of the public, and vulnerable people. If there is a fire, there should be employees who have been trained in how to use fire extinguishers and how to evacuate the building to the fire assembly point. There should also be a member of the team whose responsibility it is to contact the emergency services such as fire and ambulance. Trained first-aiders should be on site in the event of an injury to a worker. 

Levels and types of emergency shutdown will vary depending on the severity of the incident and the type of facility. For a manufacturing plant, an emergency shutdown (ESD) plan hierarchy might be as follows:

• Level 0 (most severe) – abandon plant
• Level 1 – shutdown overall plant
• Level 2 – shutdown section of plant
• Level 3 – shutdown single production line
• Level 4 – shutdown single machine or piece of equipment

Specific pieces of machinery may require specific plans in the event of an emergency. For example, if the worst happens and a worker is trapped in a piece of machinery, it’s important to know how you would go about freeing them. You would need to know if it were possible to do that with the power off in the event of an emergency shutdown, or if specialist skills or tools are needed. It’s important to plan for these scenarios so that you know what procedure to follow in the event of an accident.