hazardous materials kept on site, response to battery fires/storage, and routine response for medical emergencies.
Training should be shared with emergency responders as to the safety aspects and equipment on site for use in an emergency.
Training should also be offered to any mutual aid fire department within Dubuque County as well as any adjacent county fire department or hazardous materials response team as determined by the fire chief that could reasonably respond to the facility.
Annual walk-through familiarization with emergency responders to ensure prompt and appropriate emergency response.
Facilities should consider working with emergency management and hosting an exercise that would allow emergency responders to interact and respond with facility staff/safety teams to ensure an adequate and appropriate response to an emergency/mass casualty incident on site.
- If specialized equipment is identified to respond to a data center emergency, the cost of the equipment and proper training should be funded by the owner of the facility.
I had the chance to meet with other county emergency management coordinators last week at our fall meeting of the Iowa Emergency Management Association. They indicated to me that once the data centers are constructed, there is not a lot of interaction between the data centers and the emergency management agency. There is probably more interaction with fire and EMS for response plans and site visits. In Dallas County, the company is working with the local fire department to obtain additional equipment for the department to increase the department's response capabilities.
The coordinators did recommend that an emergency response plan for a data center be completed and include the local response agencies in the planning process. This should be the case for a data center or any other type of industry/business that the local fire department may have in their jurisdiction which may present special occupancy, hazards or impacts to agencies responding to an incident.