How to Deal With Emergency Repairs

No matter how much we plan and prepare, we can’t prevent everything. Stuff happens and we simply can’t be ready for it all. So what should you do when an emergency situation arises at your commercial facility?

| ASSESS THE SITUATION

Never go blindly into an emergency situation, especially if you are not trained to deal with emergencies. The very first thing you should always do is quickly assess the situation and identify the possible solutions. If there are any life-threatening circumstances, call 9-1-1 and let the professionals do what they’re trained to do. Similarly, alert the appropriate utility company if there are any problems with utility equipment such as power poles or gas lines.

Assuming there aren’t any life-threatening or utility issues, you can now move on to assess anything that threatens property. Take stock of what’s going on. Is it water-related? Electricity-related? Get as much information as you possibly can, because you’ll need to call your facility services company soon and they’ll need to know everything they can before they arrive on-scene.

| EMERGENCY SHUT-OFF

You’ve relayed everything you can to your facility services company, they jumped into action, and now they’ve arrived. Facilitating communication will be your most important job at this stage. Listen carefully to the instructions provided by the team that arrives on-site and answer their questions. They’ll be clearing the area of any people who might be too close to a hazard and will want you to guide them to the source of the problem as well as your utility controls. They may shut off power, water, access, or some combination of all three in order to end the emergency and allow everyone to take a breath.

| GET A PROFESSIONAL EVALUATION

Now that you’ve put a stop to the emergency, it’s time to jump right into the next stage of action. Before cleaning up and repairing the damage, your facility services company should evaluate the cause of the problem. You’re already going to be elbow-deep in repairs, so while there’s already an opening it’s a good idea to figure out what, if anything, could have prevented it in the first place. Commercial facilities are made up of several complex systems, so it’s important to get professional input on the best path to recovery and how to stay out of trouble for a long time.

| GET BACK TO NORMAL

After the professional evaluation, it’s just a matter of putting your new plan in place and patching things up. Ideally, your facility services company should be able to carry you through the entire process from emergency shut-off through final repairs. They’ll be intimately familiar with the complex utility systems that run throughout your commercial facility and are best suited to get you back to normal. Take care to select a company that you can truly partner with so you can trust that they’ve got your interests at heart.

AAA Facility Services has ample experience in dealing with property-threatening emergencies. Contact us today to learn more about how we spring into action for our clients.