A collection of sample essays on emergency response guidelines

The core essence of all emergency response is the prioritization of "protect people first, stop losses later, and trace the source later". There is no universal template that can be applied everywhere. The experience and experience that can be put into practice always need to be flexibly adjusted according to the scenario. Memorizing the process will easily lead to big problems.

I encountered a gas leak when I was a store manager in a chain convenience store. The newly hired clerk was holding the instructions printed on the wall and reading: "The first step is to close the main valve, the second step is to open the window for ventilation, and the third step is to report to the security guard." But that day, the main valve was next to the cleaning lady who was warming her hands in the sun. The smoke had drifted to her feet. The old store manager's first reaction was to drag the person outside and run 50 meters to the safety area before calling for someone to close the outdoor main gate. Later, when the company was undergoing a review, the two groups had a fierce quarrel: One group said it was a complete violation of the process, and who would be held responsible if someone caught an open flame while dragging someone and something happened? The other school says that everyone is in the danger zone. The ten seconds when the valve is turned off are enough to ignite the fire and everyone will be gone. The process is that people who die are alive. In the end, the safety supervisor concluded that there was no problem with the handling. As long as there was no deliberate expansion of losses, personnel safety would always be at the forefront of all requirements. Minor flaws in the process would not be held accountable. Instead, only deadlocks in the process that delayed rescue would be held fully responsible.

Don't tell me, I realized after this incident that the emergency guide is essentially a bottom line accumulated from the pitfalls that predecessors have stepped on, but it is not a golden rule that cannot be touched, just like the test bank of Section 1 of the driver's license test. If you really encounter an old man crossing the road on the road, you can't just follow the traffic regulations and say that I have the right of way and not hit the brakes, right?

The processing logic of different industries is actually quite different. For example, when I was doing Internet operations later, I encountered a 618 server crash. The operation and maintenance guide at that time said "first report to the department head, and then start the backup cluster." When the operation and maintenance guy saw that the backend crashed that day, his first reaction was to cut off the backup cluster first, and access was restored in 2 minutes. He only made up for the reporting process afterwards. At that time, some people said that he was operating without authorization. Who would be responsible if there were problems if he cut the wrong version? But later I calculated that if I waited until the report was completed before cutting, the crash would have taken at least 15 minutes longer, and at least hundreds of thousands of users would have to be compensated for the loss. In the end, the company even paid the guy a bonus.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can skip the process in all situations. Later, I talked with friends who are engaged in the production of hazardous chemicals. They can’t mess up their emergency response. After all, they are dealing with flammable, explosive and poisonous things. If one step is wrong, everyone will die and others will be injured. In this case, you have to strictly follow the guidelines, and even practice muscle memory.

The following is my real experience of several different scenarios. They are all written by people who have actually dealt with them. They are not clichés copied from the Internet. You can directly modify them if necessary:

Community grid members’ experience in dealing with heavy rain and waterlogging (July 2023)

When the red warning for waterlogging was triggered, we started to knock on doors and move according to the guidelines. After visiting three households, we discovered a problem: the elderly living alone basically refused to leave, either because they were reluctant to leave their bankbooks and medical insurance cards at home, or they were worried that their cats and dogs would be left unattended. The guidelines did not mention how to deal with this situation. After discussing with the director, we first helped the elderly to pack their valuables in the sealed bags they brought with them. They registered their names and house numbers clearly and put them in the emergency safe in the community. Those who were allowed to bring cats and dogs helped pack the pet bags and go with them. For those who were unwilling to take them with them, we arranged for people to put them in the temporary settlement upstairs. In the end, a total of 32 households were moved. No one was injured and no items were lost.

Supplementary review: Next time, prepare more sealed bags, temporary pet cages, and portable registration books in your emergency kit. Don’t make big talk when persuading the elderly. Solve the small things they care about first. It’s more effective than anything else.

Experience in fire emergency response in manufacturing workshops (March 2024)

This time, welding sparks in the welding workshop ignited scraps. When the third-level response was activated, the on-site safety personnel immediately cut off the power and exhaust air, and used fire extinguishers to extinguish the open fire according to the procedure. No one was injured, and the damage was controlled within 5 square meters. The source was later traced to the fact that the fire sand reserves nearby were sufficient, and emergency response training had been practiced every month, so no one panicked.

Additional review: The flammable items next to each workstation must be cleared away every day after get off work. Clearing the flammable items in advance is 100 times more effective than extinguishing the fire after an incident occurs.

Experience in handling Internet enterprise server failures (2023 618)

This failure occurred at 8 pm when the traffic peaked. The operation and maintenance immediately switched to the backup cluster and restored access within 2 minutes. Subsequent investigation revealed that the third-party interface was overloaded. There was no loss of user orders. The reporting process was supplemented afterwards, and a circuit breaker mechanism has been added to the third-party interface.

Additional review: The backup cluster switching priority of the core business is always higher than the reporting process. The premise is that the operation and maintenance are familiar enough with the operation to avoid the risk of wrong switching in advance. When this premise is met, stop loss is given priority.

Finally, to be honest, many people always try to find a universal template when writing emergency response, copying a few clichés such as "increase awareness and strengthen leadership", which are of no use at all when encountering an emergency. The insights you can really use are those you write down one by one after each treatment of the small pits you stepped on and the unexpected situations you encountered. That is what can really save your life.

Oh, by the way, one last word of hard standards. Regardless of the industry's emergency response, the "four don't let it go" principle is the bottom line: don't let it go until the cause of the accident is found out, don't let it go until the responsible person handles it, don't let it go until rectification measures are implemented, and don't let it go until the relevant personnel are educated. Don't touch this.