Emergencies & Evacuation at CIC
According to Dutch law, each company is legally responsible for their own health and safety and the health and safety of their employees, which at least includes having their own qualified emergency response officer(s) (“ERO”) and an emergency and evacuation plan. Each company is also responsible for their own guests, which is one of the main reasons we ask everyone to pick up their guests at the reception. The legal obligations in this respect can be found on wetten.overheid.nl and more specifically in the articles 3 and 15 of the Arbeidsomstandighedenwet.
Please be aware of your nearest evacuation route (the evacuation maps are distributed throughout the space), and inform your employees and guests about it.
Assistance from CIC and the Groot Handelsgebouw (GHG)
During office hours the CIC in-house emergency team is happy to help where possible in case of an emergency. Outside office hours, the GHG emergency team can be approached for assistance, but their help, just like ours, is not guaranteed. Nevertheless, the legal health and safety obligations for each company apply during and outside office hours.
Between 22.00 – 6.00 the GHG emergency team can be approached but there is only one person available at the GHG meaning there is no assistance possible on the site, between 17.00 – 22.00 and 6.00 – 8.30 assistance on the site might be possible. Same time slots apply during the weekend.
Important numbers
In case of an emergency call 112, and immediately afterwards call 010 – 240 34 39 (GHG emergency team). Hereafter, call the CIC reception 010 – 808 00 13. Do not call the GHG emergency team in case of a fire, but use the hand operated fire alarms instead, which will inform them about the location of the fire and keep the emergency line free.
When talking to ‘112’ and in need of an ambulance, tell them to come to the Conradstraat and enter P1 to the expedition parking place. Make sure someone goes down to the expedition to receive the emergency personnel and bring them up with the freight elevator. Take freight elevator D if the emergency is in section C or D, freight elevator E should be used in case the emergency is in section A, B or E.
It is very important to call the GHG emergency team as they will try to help to receive and guide the police/fire department/ambulance personnel. They can also block the freight elevators to make sure they are ‘reserved’ for emergency personnel. By calling us immediately afterwards, we will send ERO’s to assist when possible.
Evacuation
Attached you will find floor plans of the Alpha, Beta (building sections A, B and C – 4th floor), Gamma (building sections C and D – 4th floor), Epsilon (building sections D and E – 3rd floor) and Delta (building sections A and E, 4th floor) spaces with the evacuation routes, the location of our automated external defibrillator (reception desk in section A – 4th floor) and the manually operated fire alarms. In our plan, evacuation occurs horizontally and requires those being evacuated to go to the next section of the building where the alarm is not going off, only when all alarms are going off in all sections is a vertical evacuation is required. Vertical evacuation requires those being evacuated to go downstairs via the staircase(s), leave the building and go to our meeting point in front of the Central Station if you are coming from Alpha, Beta, Epsilon and Delta and if you’re coming from Gamma please go to our meeting point in front of the Albeda college. At these meeting points wait until further instructions are given by the ERO’s. If the staircase is blocked for some reason, horizontal evacuation should be prompted ad hoc.
Our plan fits within a larger evacuation plan of the building, which we have included as an attachment. An evacuation exercise led by the GHG will take place on a yearly basis, everyone in the given section needs to be evacuated during these exercises.
For those less-abled, who have trouble evacuating via the staircase, the elevators in the non-affected sections should be used. If the entire building needs to be evacuated, then there are no elevators available and help should be offered by everyone.
When the government alarm goes off, stay/get inside and when possible get people inside. Close off the space as well as possible, contact the GHG for more information and turn the local radio on to follow the situation. Do not evacuate!
AED
CIC has an AED which can be found at CIC’s reception desk (section A, 4th floor).
Collaboration
All ERO’s of CIC clients are very welcome to join forces with our ERO’s to improve our emergency and evacuation plan. If you have any ideas or if you would like to collaborate, then please send an email to helpmerotterdam@cic.com.