[labnetwork] TGMS Emergency Response Cordination

[Vito Logiudice]

Hi Corey,

I can¹t add much to the many excellent insights which have already been
contributed. In our particular case, we have fortunately not had many
false alarms since the start of our operations last September. The 2-3
false alarms that we did have occurred during the first couple of months
and were due to excessive TEOS sensor sensitivities to IPA; this has since
been addressed and resolved. I should mention that our TGMS system is not
connected to the building fire panel so the entire building is not
evacuated should a level 2 alarm be triggered; only the cleanroom is
evacuated. Some may question the sensibility of this approach but there is
a long story behind this which I won¹t get into here.

I have met with our Director of Police Services to establish a proper
response protocol for their dispatchers and first responders. I have also
met with someone from our local fire department and since there was
significant interest in learning more about our facility, I plan to invite
a large crew to tour the facility and to answer questions this coming
fall. I agree with others on here that it is a good thing for first
responders to be familiar with the installations and the people whom run
them.

Finally, if it can help you can find a copy of our facility¹s emergency
response plan here:
https://fab.qnc.uwaterloo.ca/data/access/safety/emergency-response

UWaterloo Police Services has their own response plan for their officers
which is separate from but consistent with the procedures listed in this
document.

Best of luck to you as you deal with this important issue. Glad to speak
with you offline if you have any questions in regards to our particular
setup and procedures.

Best regards,
Vito
--
Vito Logiudice  P.Eng.
Director of Operations, Quantum NanoFab
University of Waterloo
Lazaridis QNC 1207
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON           Canada N2L 3G1
Tel.: (519) 888-4567  ext. 38703
Email: vito.logiudice at uwaterloo.ca
Website: https://fab.qnc.uwaterloo.ca





-----Original Message-----
From: Corey David Wolin <cdwolin at ucdavis.edu>
Date: Friday, July 17, 2015 at 11:57 AM
To: "labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu" <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: [labnetwork] TGMS Emergency Response Cordination

>Hi All
>
>After a few false alarm with our toxic gas monitoring system concerns
>were raised with regards to the response from fire and PD. They approach
>to to the alarms is as if they are all false alarms.  Our TGMS system is
>set to evacuate the building on any high level gas alarm, which includes
>the dean's office among all other engineering administrative staff.  They
>also don't contact anyone on the alarm contact list for after hours
>alarms which is very concerning. This was determined after looking
>through the alarm history.
>
>I'm curious as to how many of you coordinate with campus first responders
>and EH&S on the serious nature of the the gases to which the sensors are
>monitoring?  What do many of you feel the proper emergency response to a
>high level silane alarm should be? Low Level? In addition, at which point
>should the TGMS evacuate the building if automatic shutoff valves exist
>for both high and low level alarms?
>
>Any feedback and/or advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Corey
>
>-----------------
>Corey Wolin
>NanoFab Manager
>UCDavis Engineering
>
>
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