Prevention— Fire Protection
Oil Tycoon, J. Paul Getty, died the “richest man in the world” on June 6, 1976 leaving the bulk of his estate to the J. Paul Getty Museum. It took fifteen years of planning and four years of construction to complete the museum located off the 405 freeway just north of Los Angeles, CA. To provide fire protection for the $1 billion museum, planners installed external sprinklers and a million-gallon firefighting reservoir. In addition, they also lined the tram route with tens of thousands of native oaks and other plants. Why? These trees are more resistant to wildfire and offer erosion control during the area’s periodic fires and floods. This appears to be an excellent fire protection plan against wildfires.
Prevention— Sprinklers
Speaking of sprinklers, do you have any Omega sprinklers installed in the buildings housing your organization’s business units? If you do, you might be interested in a lawsuit filed in December by Santa Clara County in California. The County has taken the lead role in a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Central Sprinkler Corp., one of the nation’s leading manufacturer’s of automatic sprinkler, is putting out a defective product.
The focus is on the company’s line of Omega sprinklers made before June 1996. Government officials and fire departments across the country have been investigating complaints about malfunctioning sprinklers. This summer, court papers show, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., a product safety group, found that Omega sprinklers to be defective. The Fairfax, Virginia Fire Department reaches a similar conclusion in its own tests.
While the sprinklers have not been blamed for any fires in the Santa Clara County, the lawsuit maintains that the sprinklers have failed in at least six instances across the country in the last two years. This includes one fire at a Florida marina that enveloped 1,500 boats, and another at a Mariott Hotel in Michigan that prompted the chain to replace 200,000 Omega sprinklers in 220 hotels. Acting Santa Clara County Counsel, Ann Ravel, said at least three county-owned buildings are equipped with Central’s Omega sprinkler system. The lawsuit alleges that Central has known of the faulty systems since early 1995, but failed to notify customers. The suit attempts to force Central to replace the sprinklers and pay installation costs.
Central Sprinkler Corp. officials did not comment on the lawsuit, but said earlier that it has corrected problems in the sprinkler model in question, and will pay to test any systems suspected of being faulty.
Managing Changes
During the last two years I have made a number of presentations dealing with the need for Business Continuity Planning Managers to “Manage Change in the Business Environment.” There is no question that Business Continuity Planners are being challenged by personnel, business, and technology changes. It can be frustrating, but it cannot be used as an excuse to allow BCP to flounder. Change can and will happen. Change must be approached as an opportunity, rather than a problem. With this in mind, I was pleased to see how one of our country’s founding fathers approached change in his day. During a visit to Washington, D.C., during the holidays, I visited the national monuments, i.e. the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln Memorials. While I was in the Jefferson Memorial I read his approach to change:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must also advance to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their ancestors. — Taken from a letter Thomas Jefferson sent to Samuel Kercheval on July 12, 1816, as inscribed in the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
El Nino
Some weather experts believe that the El Nino of 1997-1998 may dwarf just any other seen in this century. Temperatures at the sea’s surface have been rising so rapidly that they seen likely to equal those of the notorious El Nino of 1982-1983, which left 2,000 dead and $13 billion in economic losses. It is being blamed as the cause of the tropical storms that have struck Mexico, the heavy downpours that struck Chile and Peru, and the lack of rain in Australia and Indonesia.
Issues Covered in this Column
This will be my last column before the San Diego DRJ conference in March. I hope to see many of you there. Please feel free to grab me during the conference and discuss issues you would like to see covered in my column.
Ed Devlin is an Executive Consultant for Peak Consulting.
n the last issue, I mentioned how we should use recent incidents as lessons from which we can learn valuable information. These lessons can be applied to the basic tenants of Business Continuity Planning, i.e. Prevention, Response and Business Resumption strategies.
• El Nino, what is it? It is the warming of tropical waters along the Pacific Ocean that often affects the weather patterns around the world.
• How did it get its name? Since an El Nino generally peaks around December, a Christmas-time weather visitor, Peruvian fishermen long ago gave the phenomenon the name El Nino, which in Spanish means The Christ Child.
• How often does it occur? It happens every 2 to 7 years.
