Practice makes perfect
Annual emergency-preparedness drill held at Jacksonville facility
Employees of Ashland Performance Materials in Jacksonville are keeping their emergency-preparedness skills on point, thanks to an annual emergency drill.
Mike Taylor, environmental health and safety coordinator for the specialty chemical company, said this is something the company does every year to make sure its employees are familiar with safety precautions and what to do in case there is an emergency in the workplace.
“We have 44 employees here, and the drill is different every year,” Taylor said.
This year’s scenario, held Tuesday, involved an outside contractor who was moving a forklift outside the plant and struck a pipe rack that crosses the north entrance to the plant.
The contractor then called the supervisor on duty to tell him what had happened, while an Ashland employee was completing a project atop the 60-foot isopropyl alcohol silo on-site.
In the drill, the chemicals ignited and startled the employee, causing him to lose his footing which left him suspended on the side of the tank. He called for help, and his supervisor was notified and ordered 911 to be called.
Chief Alan Laughy of the Jacksonville Fire Department said he and a committee comprising Ashland employees and members of the fire department developed the scenario.
“Ashland and the fire department have their own objectives [for the drill],” Laughy said. “The drill is something we do every year, but the scenario changes every year.”
To better prepare the employees of the fire department, Laughy said, the members of the scenario committee are the only firefighters who know what to expect when the drill is called to action.
“It gives them better training if we don’t give out too much information,” he said.
Before becoming fire chief for the Jacksonville department, Laughy was a part of the fire department with the Little Rock Air Force Base, which also participates in the Ashland emergency drill.
“Out of the six or seven drills I’ve participated in, this was the best drill I’ve been a part of,” he said. “This was my first drill I participated in with the Jacksonville Fire Department.”
Laughy was named fire chief earlier this year.
Taylor said the drill is important not only to employees who work at the Ashland plant, but to emergency crews who would respond if an emergency were to occur at the Jacksonville site.
“We’ve never had a major incident at this plant,” Taylor said. “Every year, we develop a scenario that meets [the emergency crews’] needs, and it also tests some of our procedures.”
The drill is important to Taylor because it shows his employees what to do if something serious were to occur at the plant.
“It keeps [an emergency] on the employees’ minds,” he said. “Like anything else, if you practice it, you will react better if you’re put in that situation.”
Dave Winstead, a maintenance mechanic at Ashland, said the plant tries to involve all of the local emergency departments.
“Having this drill allows us to be a good neighbor to the community,” Winstead said. “That way, if there is an emergency, we’re able to handle it quickly and safely.”
In addition to the annual drill, Winstead said, the plant has weekly tests of its evacuation and fire alarms.
Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 2444307 or lburnett@arkansas online.com.