In your day-to-day living, disasters may seem a distant possibility. Yet natural disasters such as, floods or earthquakes; technological or environmental accidents such as, chemical spills; or service disruptions such as, power failures, can strike anywhere at any time. If a disaster occurs in the City of Vancouver, the emergency services will try to help you. But you need to be ready as well. Local responders may not be able to reach you immediately, or they may need to focus their efforts elsewhere. We know that disaster preparedness works. Take action now that will help protect your family, reduce the impact an emergency has on your life, and deal with the chaos if an incident occurs near you.
You should be prepared to respond to any type of disaster that could occur in your area. Being prepared for an emergency situation can reduce stress and trauma to you and your family, and even reduce damage to your property. This means having enough supplies on hand to be self-sufficient for at least three days. During an emergency you may need to provide for your own shelter, first aid, food, water and sanitation before emergency personnel can restore regular services. There are a number of common sense steps that you can take right now to ensure that you are prepared in the event of an emergency. Please take the time to look through the “Emergency Preparedness” section of the Tenant Emergency Preparedness Manual, which are delivered to each tenancy annually..
As with the Fire Alarm and Evacuation Procedures, Cadillac Fairview holds an annual Emergency Preparedness Workshop for all interested tenants on a first come, first serve basis. The basic preparations steps noted in the Tenant Emergency Preparedness Manual are discussed at great length.
Emergency Evacuation Drills
As required by both the National Fire Code and the National Building Code of Canada, supported by the British Columbia Fire and Building Codes and the City of Vancouver Fire By-Laws, we are required to conduct an "evacuation of the building" annually. The true intent of this compliance is to ensure a) tenants have a working emergency response plan as required by WorkSafeBC (Guidelines Part 4 – Emergency Preparedness & Response) and b) provide the opportunity for tenants to “exercise” or “test” their internal plans in conjunction with the annual building evacuations
Emergency planning and training directly influence the outcome of an emergency situation. Tenants with well-prepared employees and well-developed preparedness plans are likely to incur fewer or less severe employee injuries and minimize business disruption. The Cadillac Fairview evacuation exercises are designed to be a “practice run” for all Emergency Wardens to evaluate their response in the event of an emergency and provide a practical application of their roles and responsibilities.
Upon completion of the scheduled annual evacuation exercise, we ask that you complete the evacuation exercise evaluation form and send it off to the Manager, Fire & Safety, at victor.smart@cadillacfairview.com no later than 3 business days following the exercise.
The Manger, Fire & Safety, will use the evaluation forms to review evacuation procedures and address any issues that may have arisen.
Evacuation Exercise Evaluation Form