Emergency Action Plan

When an emergency occurs, decisions must be made quickly to minimize the degree of injury, suffering, and property damage.  An Emergency Action Plan (EAP) deals with a serious accident or emergency including, but not limited to the following: a fatality; member(s) of the public injured as a direct result of production; crew or cast seriously injured; employee heat illness; earthquake; major storm; fire; flood; explosion; major releases of hazardous materials; violent occurrences, etc.  

An EAP should be in place for all production locations, including stages and production offices.  As every location is different, additional emergency preparedness procedures may be required.

The development of the plan should consider the following:

• All potential emergencies (e.g., fire, earthquake, storm, flood, etc.);
• Possible consequences of each emergency;
• Required control measures;
• Individual roles and responsibilities;
• Training requirements; and,
• Required resources needed to carry out the plan.

To be successful, the plan must be communicated to all crew and cast.  At the beginning of production, on the first stage or location, an EAP meeting should be held for the entire crew and cast.  This meeting can be part of the general safety meeting.  The following information should be included in this meeting:

• The location of all emergency exits and escape routes;
• The location of all fire alarm pull stations and fire extinguishers;
• The local emergency response phone number or other means of contacting emergency responders;
• Employees should be aware of the cast and / or crew members who are working with them in case it is necessary to notify emergency personnel of missing persons;
• Employees must know clear and precise directions to work area so this information can be provided to emergency responders in the event of an emergency;
• Designate a post-evacuation assembly area, where cast and crew should gather by department.
• Department heads should know the names and the number of employees in their department so that an accurate count can be made and any missing employees noted;
• Crea and cast should be instructed to never re-enter an evacuated building until it has been cleared by emergency personnel;
• EAP information specific to each location should be attached to the daily call sheet;
• Emergency egress and / or evacuation information should be addressed in the daily safety meeting and noted on the daily production report.
• Training and / or periodic drills may be necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the EAP.

Serious Incident Emergency Notification

A serious incident / set emergency includes but is not limited to the following – a fatality, an amputation, a member(s) of the public injured as a result of production, cast or crew seriously injured, earthquake, flood, fire, etc.

Emergency help should be summoned immediately in the event of a serious incident or set emergency.  The 1st AD or UPM should notify the production executive and Production Safety Specialist.  If the seriousness of the incident warrants, notification should be made immediately, regardless of the time of day or night.