EH&S 1996 IFA Final Report: Fire Department

                                                                                  

Organization and management

The LBNL Environment, Health and Safety Division's primary mission is to provide professional and technical expertise to support and enhance the Laboratory's research and development program.

The EH&S Division is organized into departments and groups to align closely with Laboratory organizational structure. There are two departments, each representing a major functional area: Environment, Health, and Safety. Reporting to these two departments are seven groups. A division administrator, matrixed to EH&S from the Office of the Associate Laboratory Director, Administration, is charged with overall fiscal and personnel management within the Division.

Reporting to the division director, each department head has leadership responsibility for a major functional unit, usually including two or more subordinate group leaders, plus professionals and technical staff, varying in number from 30 to 50 individuals. Each department head is responsible for management of the department, including planning, staffing, and budgeting, and for the development and implementation of Laboratory policies and procedures in their functional area. Each department head represents the department in contacts with internal and external organizations and individuals on matters of major significance to the success of Laboratory programs and activities. The department head directs the work of subordinate managers in the groups within the department.

Reporting to the division director or a department head, each group leader has supervisory responsibility for an EH&S technical or professional section, project, or function. An EH&S group comprises several professionals and/or technical experts (typically 10 to 25 people), organized to achieve goals in a specific, focused EH&S specialty area.

David Mc Graw is the LBNL EH&S division director. He is responsible for the day to day operations that articulate Lab policies on protection of the public, and the environment, and eliminate potential compliance exposures to the lab. The EH&S divisional Charter provides a roadmap for the rest of the division and is found in the Division Function Notebook.

The two departments are the Field Support Department and the Services Department. The Field Support Department is managed by Jeffrey Chung; the Fire Operations Group, managed by Stacy Cox reports to Jeffry Chung.

Performance Expectation and objectives

1) Research Program Management Responsibility for Safety.

At the Berkeley Laboratory the following documents establish the policy and provide the implementation guidance that makes line management is effectively accountable for protection of workers, the public and the environment:

Operations Assurance Plan (OAP) - 1996

Self Assessment Manual - 1992

Supplement - 1996

Publication 3000 - Environment Health and Safety Manual - 1995

Chemical Hygiene and Safety Plan - 1992

Waste Generator Guidelines - 1996

Employee Performance/Progress Review (Section III) - 1996

2) Clear Roles and Responsibilities.

Each Division making up the Berkeley Laboratory has clearly defined lines of responsibility down to the working level. Each division designates a research investigator to represent its views and concerns on the Laboratory Safety Review Committee and a full time employee to act as the ES & H Coordinator. This Coordinator acts as the interface between ES & H concerns and compliance in the workplace and the EH & S technical professionals. The organizational information is updated every 60 days and is retained in the Functional/Facility Notebooks as appropriate (see OAP).

3) Competence Commensurate with Responsibilities.

Job assignments, including hires, are reviewed by line management and by the compensation group within Human Resources to ensure that the requirements and responsibilities of a job are matched by the experience, knowledge and skills of individuals selected for assignment. A performance expectation for managers and supervisors in the Division of Environment, Health and Safety is how well the talents, knowledge and skills of staff are matched to work assignments and responsibilities

The Laboratory's training program ensures that each staff member, including participating guests, is adequately trained to do participate safely in Laboratory activities. Staff, with supervisor participation, fill out the Jobs Hazards Questionnaire (JHQ) describing the hazards associated with their job assignment and work area. Evaluation of the responses by the Training Coordinator and the cognizant supervisor determines the training regimen needed to carry out work in a manner that protects the employee, co-workers, the public and the environment.

4) Balanced Priorities.

All environment, safety and health activities in the Laboratory are described in technical terms with budgetary information included. Each year this information is updated, reviewed and prioritized on the basis of risk to workers, public, and the environment by a Laboratory wide committee selected to represent programmatic line management and ES & H professionals. This document is utilized by Laboratory Senior Management in strategically planning the immediate focus and long term goals of the environment, safety and health program at the Laboratory.

5) Hazard Controls Tailored to Work Being Performed.

Chapter 6 of the Environment, Health and Safety Manual clearly defines the steps for each line manager to develop the appropriate engineering and administrative controls to mitigate hazards in the workplace. The Laboratory's Self Assessment Program, including Functional Appraisals by ES & H professionals, and the UC/DOE Contract 98 Performance Measures provide assurance that implementation of hazards control is adequate to protection the worker, the public and the environment.

6) Identification of Safety Standards and Requirements.

The Laboratory is dedicated to following the Necessary and Sufficient Closure Process (DOE 450.3) on an iterative basis at all levels of activities in the Laboratory to ensure the Safety Standards are adequate to provide protection to workers, the public and the environment. This process is completed by to commencement of work in those situations where current work is significantly modified, new work is proposed or substantial facility modifications are being made (Chapter 6, Environment Health and Safety Manual).

7) Operations Authorization.

Conditions and requirements for facilities determined to be of higher risk based on the Preliminary Hazards Analysis are contained in a Safety Analysis Document. Activity Hazard Documents are the basis for meeting this requirement for specific operations and activities falling into the higher risk category at the Berkeley Laboratory. Internal Agreements describing the performance expectations by each party are used for operations between two functional areas where the quality of performance might adversely impact the Laboratory's ability to meet its responsibility to protect workers, the public and the environment.

What Actions will be performed

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fire Operation Group mission is, to protect employees and property from destruction due to fire and and related perils via direct action and coordination of the Fire Services Resources. To best meet it objective the Fire Department is partitioned into the Operations and Fire Prevention Units.

The Operations Unit is responsible for:

The Fire Prevention Unit is responsible for:

Physical Conditions where the work is performed

Building 48 is the LBNL fire and ambulance house. This facility serves as the garage for the site ambulance, and fire response vehicles. The building also houses the emergency response control room, the site emergency coordination center and offices for fire operations personnel. There is living space (sleeping quarters, kitchen and small fitness center). The vehicle area is intended for safekeeping of the vehicles; there is no vehicle maintenance performed in this area. . ER personnel do maintain fire and other emergency response equipment in this area.

Fire Operations Personnel may respond to any area onsite where there is a fire or other emergency where lives and/or property are endangered.

Materials and conditions that could cause adverse consequences

Fire Operations personnel engage in the following general activities at the facility: Sufficient Fire Operation response personnel are present 7 days per week 24 hours a day to respond to onsite emergencies. As such Fire Operations response personnel may be exposed to any of the hazards listed in the attached work sheet. A review of the SAAR report from 1994 to present indicates that the LOC for most of these hazards is low. The SAAR report for the firefighters indicates that most of the injuries are related to physical stress and respiratory distress.

Uncertainties about the work

Future funding issues and recent funding constraints have eliminated some Fire Operations personnel and impacted the Mutual Fire Aid Agreement with the City of Berkeley. Other uncertainties center around future overhead funding security.

Resource availability and constraint

There are no significant changes in EH&S support for the forseeable future.

Stakeholder concerns

The Fire Operations Group has recently been restructured to better align the group with the needs of the lab. The mutual aid agreement is being renogiated with the City of Berkeley that will best balance the needs of local fire response and the lab.



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