Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Diverse and very close to the national specificities, the “industrial risk cultures” have been for the first time harmonized with the publication of COMAH (for Control Of Major Accidents Hazards) European directives in 1982 and 1996. Through their implementation, these Seveso-named directives generated the first common prevention and emergency planning basis. After risk assessment and scenario modelling, the company is directly responsible for in-plant emergency planning. Prevention methods and safety procedures have to be prepared, tested and registered by the internal safety departments. If an accident occurs, the off-site planning has to run, under the leadership of policy makers. Strategy, coordination and control of different public agencies are keys of crisis management. Over these 15 years-old process, the aim of the paper is to describe how it is possible to do more than regulation requirements, with a good private-public partnership (industrial company-public EM services), with technical means and advanced technologies.