FEATURE ARTICLE, JUNE 2007

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT TAKES CHARGE
Effective Fire & Life Safety systems preserve lives and businesses.
David Osborn

Owning and managing a real estate portfolio has never been more challenging than it is today. Real estate executives find that their customers — building tenants — demand more in improved operations management every day. And as the benefits of crisis preparation become clearer, tenants require that their landlords work harder at planning for emergencies, ensuring building security and even managing the health concerns of building occupants. Effective fire and life safety (F&LS) planners think proactively and set up clear, tested protocols and systems that monitor critical information about each building and alert the right people when a problem occurs. Unfortunately, keeping all of this information up-to-date and available is a persistent nightmare for building managers, one that demands the right technology.

Regardless of any crisis, managers need to know at every moment what is going on in their buildings and exactly what to do in case of an emergency. They can keep abreast of such issues more easily with a full-spectrum building operations management system that includes F&LS and business continuity planning. Building a computerized infrastructure of accurate information, when combined with thorough preparation and training, will help to keep a crisis from escalating out of control. As we saw in Massachusetts last year, the cost of failure is far too high.

On the morning of December 8, 2006, a three-alarm electrical fire broke out at the One Broadway building, a 17-floor multi-tenant office building in Cambridge occupied by many small commercial tenants. A transformer had blown, killing one of the utility employees who had been servicing it. According to various reports, many employees did not know the location of the stairwells and received only panicked instructions over the building’s public address system. People were trapped on the roof, while others broke windows to escape. In the end, about 100 of the tenants’ 800 total employees were treated for smoke inhalation.

Of course, proper procedures and protocols may not prevent such disasters, but the right planning, supported by a state-of-the art F&LS system, will limit the resulting property damage, medical trauma and negative publicity. Clear and consistent crisis preparation will help to minimize any confusion over the location of stairwells and the content of building announcements. Most importantly, information — fresh, accurate information disseminated immediately — is crucial for both trapped occupants and emergency personnel when time is of the essence. 

A successful plan starts with information collection. Managers should assemble emergency tenant contact information, identify the location of hazardous materials, and create a list of fire wardens, mobility-impaired occupants and emergency support contacts. Actively monitoring the freshness of this information is critical to the plan’s success; thus, a system that digitally stores the information, actively updates it and makes it instantly available anywhere is critical to the plan’s success.

These demands add up to quite a tall order for any F&LS system, but effective systems answer by offering smart features specifically tailored to meet the demands of management. With training as a vital part of any crisis planning, the system should have an online scheduling tool for fire drills and other exercises, with automatic reminders for these events. Reminders should also be built in for maintenance and inspections, and any other F&LS-related tasks. Along with the emergency plans and protocols, procedures for contacting employees and occupants must be documented in the system and available for quick access, but, crucially, this contact information must be automatically kept up-to-date, with the contacts properly grouped for ready access no matter where a manager may be in the building. Well-designed F&LS systems also have a proactive component — a built-in escalation protocol that regularly updates occupants on emergency conditions and automatically alerts the right people in an emergency, namely ownership, risk and loss consultants, and public relations experts. Having such systems in place ahead of time ensures that critical information is as close as a telephone call or Internet connection, especially when it needs to be turned into effective action instantly.

Of course, no matter how successful the response may be, every crisis will have an aftermath. Whether the event occurs in the owner’s building or in the building next door, the confusion, clean-up and repair that follows such an event can adversely affect that building and the businesses it supports. Again, planning comes into play, as building managers must communicate regularly with their tenants about business continuity protocols, both for their own sake and for the building. Managers need to assure building tenants that given a crisis, adequate plans are in place to support business activities, including provisions for space, electrical support, telecommunications and continuing F&LS vigilance. Meanwhile, this same system that has been tracking all of the building’s F&LS-related tasks, compliance with inspections and communications with tenants is also storing all of these records — records that can help protect against and even deter future litigation should an incident occur. Lastly, owners and managers who use a standardized system across a portfolio of multiple buildings can easily compare protocols and processes and more effectively identify best practices.

When the right systems are running and all of the planning for emergencies and business continuity falls into place, many of the most challenging crises can be kept under control. A notable example occurred last spring at a landmark Boston office building, when one of its tenant’s employees returned from abroad carrying the measles virus. With well-adapted emergency procedures, proactive measures and an effective F&LS communication system in place, the building manager quickly engaged local health authorities, successfully contained the virus, and put tenants at ease with regular podcasts, announcements and online letters from infectious disease professionals. As a result, the building remained open and the outbreak contained, the building manager appeared to be thorough and responsive, and the building owner avoided a significant loss. 

Success stories like this one should be the norm in commercial real estate, especially with building owners needing to reduce risk and with managers needing to meet their increasing responsibilities for F&LS and business continuity. With an increased focus on planning and taking advantage of the right technology, they have a better chance of doing just that.

David Osborn is the CEO of Building Engines Inc.


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