Good Thing They Didn’t Panic

This story was related to us by our safety officer. Years ago, he was working in a large refinery and they had a safety drill every last day of the month. Everyone knew when the drill was due; coworkers kept reminding each other, “Have your badge/dosimeter/mask with you.” At the sound of the sirens, all quickly donned their gas masks and reached the gathering points in an orderly fashion. The safety service reported a 100% preparedness level.

It was too good to be true.

Together with a few practical-minded colleagues, the safety officer lobbied for having a more realistic test, so one day, the sirens sounded unexpectedly.

It was mayhem all around, but one event took the cake. Two workers were doing a job on an elevated platform and had forgotten their gas masks at ground level. One of the two, in the safety officer’s own words, “crapped himself and made his peace.” The other, less fatalistically, jumped from the platform in an attempt to reach the gas mask and broke both legs.

The refinery management, upon receiving the preparedness level numbers, took action. Their first decision, effective immediately, was to return to preplanned end-of-the-month drills with no exception.