Exercising is Good for Everyone

In the 1974 movie The Towering Inferno, a bad circuit-breaker on the 85th floor of a 138-story building sets off a fire, trapping 300 dignitaries at a party on one of the top floors. At the time that movie was made, high-rises were considered exotic—found only in the largest cities, such as San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Today, such towers are ubiquitous, numbering roughly 88,500 and located in more than 7,000 cities worldwide. New York alone has more that 2,000 high-rise buildings. Still, the main theme of the movie remains unchanged more than 30 years later: A fire in one of these towering structures can be a nightmare for first responders charged with containing the blaze and rescuing the people trapped within.

 

The public may think that high-rise fires are not a frequent occurrence, but the facts suggest otherwise: The United States Fire Administration, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, estimates that approximately 15,500 high-rise fires occur each year, causing 60 civilian deaths, 930 injuries, and $252 million in property loss. Notably, 69 percent of high-rise fires originate on the 4th floor or below, and 60 percent are in apartment buildings, making evacuation a challenge.

 

Security managers charged with protecting people and assets in these types of structures can increase the odds that they will be prepared to meet that challenge by proactively reaching out to local first responders ahead of time and conducting joint exercises. Last year, while serving as chair of the ASIS International Fire and Life Safety Council, I had the opportunity to participate in an exercise that was the result of this type of outreach. The experience illustrates the benefits of partnering with local authorities for training exercises.

 

The opportunity for public-private collaboration arose when David A. Talley, CPO, director of security for Renaissance Tower, was at a meeting of the Dallas Emergency Response Team (DERT). He heard an announcement that the Dallas Fire Department (DFD), also known as Dallas Fire-Rescue, was looking for a high-rise facility where it could conduct a fire training exercise.

 

Talley wanted to volunteer Renaissance Tower, the second tallest building in Dallas and the fifth tallest in Texas, not only to help the local first responders but also to give his security department the opportunity to work with those responders in a major exercise. First, Talley needed management buy-in; he explained the benefits, and they concurred. He then contacted the DFD.

 

The DFD conducts frequent high-rise firefighting exercises, but these are typically held at its six-story concrete training tower. Most cities have similar training structures. These facilities serve a purpose, but they cannot truly simulate for firefighters what they will encounter in a real-world high-rise environment. That’s why the DFD was seeking a private partner willing to let the department conduct an exercise in its building.

 

As DFD Deputy Chief Harold Holland, who was in charge of the fire-training event, explains, “Any time you have an opportunity to get away from the classroom and the training center to put your experience and training to the test in a new environment, it allows firefighters to become more innovative in their tactical approach to the specific objectives.”

 

Among the parties participating in addition to DFD would be the Dallas Police Department, the Dallas Office of Emergency Management, and the Salvation Army. The Dallas medical response team and the arson investigators were there to interact with the Renaissance Tower security department and management team.

 

The fire department organized and planned the training, and coordinated the support of other city departments and services. Meanwhile, Talley worked with the building’s management, the tenants, and his security staff to ensure that they were prepared. The drill would be on a weekend to minimize the disruption to business operations. Most tenants would not be in, easing the logistics.

 

The only major tenant that would be in the building was a major credit card company that operates 24/7. Since the incident scenario did not involve the floor of the tenant, it was agreed that evacuation of those workers was not necessary. The goal of this particular exercise was not to test evacuation procedures, which the company practiced separately.