Process Safety and Emergency Preparedness

I was reading about the two recent incidents of fires in high rise buildings in Bangalore and Kolkata and the high number of fatalities involved. In both cases, emergency escape paths were either blocked or locked. In a chemical plant emergency, things are much worse - domino effects can have catastrophic effects.Events will snowball quickly and unless you are well prepared, it will be difficult to handle a major emergency. All plant personnel should understand that mock drills are conducted when there is no emergency.In an actual emergency, Murphy's law will apply: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". A mock drill mentally prepares you for the do's and dont's.
Plant operating and maintenance personnel, especially those on shift duty must always keep themselves familiar about emergency alarm activation, escape paths, emergency breathing air escape packs and self contained breathing apparatus, crash shutdown procedures,emergency communication systems, what to do in total power failure and other possible emergencies.Most of the emergencies uncannily happen in the early morning hours when all shift people are sleepy and the general shift people are sleeping!
In some of the chemical units that I visit, the people assume that emergency preparedness is the job of the safety officer!If you want to survive in an emergency, YOU have to take responsibility and be prepared. Do not think it will not happen to you.You will not have a second chance.