What’s the difference between Shelter In Place and a Lockdown in an emergency situation?

Shelter In Place

Shelter In Place is defined as to make a shelter out of the place you are in (for example, your home, school or workplace) at the time of an emergency. It is a way for you to make your home or another building as safe as possible to protect yourself until help arrives.  This option can be imposed upon any building for a number of reasons, normally due to an external human, natural or technological driven emergency situation.  Shelter in Place may require occupants to move freely around a building but remain within the confines of the building, rather than evacuate.

Some situations may take a number of hours to resolve and occupants may need to listen for ongoing announcements from building management, media or emergency services to be fully informed of an evolving situation. It’s important to stay informed during a situation where you may be sheltering in place as occupants may be directed to a designated safe place within the workplace, or take shelter in their own workspace or tenancy, the emergency situation may require the grounding of all lifts, or moving occupants with any mobility challenges to a lower level may also need to be considered depending on the situation.  All occupants should be prepared to evacuate should this be directed by Emergency Services.  Once the situation is resolved you may be required to evacuate to the building‘s evacuation assembly area, or a secondary assembly area if the former is deemed unsafe, to have your details confirmed and accounted for by Emergency Services or your Emergency Control Organisation

Lockdown

A Lockdown is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as an emergency situation in which people are not allowed to freely enter, leave, or move around in a building or area because of danger. A threat directly involving the building or within the building may require a facility to be placed into Lockdown. Lifts will usually be not operational under this directive and no persons will be admitted into or out of the building with occupants also required to take additional shelter within an office, meeting room or tenancy.  Movement must be kept minimal until you are advised that conditions have returned to normal.

In some situations it may be necessary for all tenants of a building to lockdown within their own workspace and remain out of sight until your receive further direction from Emergency Services, or the building’s Emergency Control Organisation, or advised that the situation is safe.

If you are required to Lockdown any staff & visitors in your tenancy may need to

• Immediately lock all entry points to your workspace
• Move staff away from all entry points and towards the rear of the tenancy
• Switch off lighting
• Ask all within your tenancy to switch OFF or silence mobile phones
• Keep together and minimise all movements and noise
• Stay hidden and DO NOT be tempted to show yourselves
• Listen for announcements from Management or Emergency Services
• Do not leave the tenancy or resume normal activities until instructed to do so

If you would like further clarification on what your business and staff should consider in either situation then please contact Workplace Emergency Management on (02) 8883 1694 to discuss your concerns with one our Consultants and how our Emergency Management Plan can help with managing the safety of your staff in an emergency situation.