An emergency will happen. The only questions are WHEN and WILL YOU be prepared?
At the Town Hall Meeting, Management presented a short video produced by the City of Chicago Fire Department, which demonstrates the City’s “C.A.L.M.” emergency procedure and reviews some safety and fire emergency do’s and don’ts for residents of high rises. The big message – STAY CALM and DON’T PANIC. Hence, the acronym “C.A.L.M.” This stands for Call 911, Alert management and neighbors, Listen for instructions, and Move to Safety.
If you weren’t able to make the meeting, the video is also available on YouTube. It’s formatted to view online as Part 1 and Part 2 videos both just over 5 minutes in length. Therein they review simple and easy instructions to follow the C.A.L.M. procedure. Follow these links to view each segment:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Following the video, we discussed the “C.A.L.M.” procedure and how it can be helpful for residents of buildings such as Park Tower to keep in mind should an emergency arise. Some of the instructions and suggestions for how to respond could mean all the difference in saving lives and property.
We also reviewed some of the safety features of Park Tower, observations during past emergency events, and distributed documents for residents to review and learn more:
1. The City of Chicago’s “C.A.L.M” brochure, which reviews in detail the the relatively simple steps discussed in the CFD videos. Click the following link to view and download:
2. Park Tower Condo maintains an Emergency Plan specific to the building. This includes guidance for first responders such as the CFD, management and the staff, and covers an array of possible emergencies and guidelines for response. While there is no perfect way to respond to an emergency situation, the Plan outlines steps, procedures and response guidance for fires, floods, severe weather, active shooter incidents and other emergency situations that could conceivably arise. This plan is reviewed and updated AT LEAST annually.
Included with the plan, is more detailed guidance for residents, which you can view and download:
PTCA Resident Emergency Procedures (Aug 2018)
3. Being prepared in a high rise building also means keeping Management up to date with ALL your contact phone numbers – WORK, HOME and CELL – and an e-mail address if you have it. Also, we need to know who to you want us to contact (and how) in the event we can not reach you or if you become involved in the emergency or otherwise incapacitated.
For that purpose, we have an Emergency Contact Information Form which should be completed by every resident and turned into the office:
Emergency Contact Information Form (2018)
Once you’ve had an opportunity to review these materials, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail.
