Posted By Alan Haynes Whichever office I have worked in - the perceived wisdom is that you should not use the fire alarm to evacuate the building, but should use some other method to get people to go to a different assembly point from that used for 'fires'. The reasoning being that if you use the same assembly point as for fires, that's where they will put the bomb. [Theory falls down if they read the evacuation procedure though.....]

Posted By Philby' Stuart, the employee heard right....The met and WYF&RS both advise the use of 'verbal communication', so no radio or mobile communication either. Isolate raea, inform emergency services, evacuate away from source...preferably by a number of diverse routes...see below...in fact too much to put here and needs to be specific to your environment We operate this policy also Also a number of other 'specialists' have advised the same...various reasons given are...electrical or radio impulses setting the 'device off'....don't want lots of people stampedeing past the area...if remotely detonated, and therefore someone watching, doesn't alert them to the mass exodus, (even though you are still going to get one). try your local Police Events Co-ordinator/Liaison Officer, (gave more info than anti-terrorist Advisor) or LA Risk/Disaster Planning Dept Philby'

Posted By Mr T try www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page5.html

Posted By RobAnybody Stuart, I forgot one other thing. Consider the old Distance, Shielding, Time matrix. Be very far away, behind lots of cover & wait. It either goes bang or a nice man makes it stop. Rob.

Posted By Ron Impey There is a video showing the performance of a window safety film at: http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/...21pgi252/EXP=1145983787/**http%3a//www.cmwindowfilms.com/3mbombblast.mpeg It is important that bomb procedures are brought up-to-date, to take into account the nature of the attacks on 7/7, and the possibility that a dirty bomb or biochemical weapon is employed.

Posted By d88 Some interesting points raised. I've been lucky to attend government courses on dealing with this and the general consensus is that your plan should be flexible enough to deal with different threats. i.e. your response to a chemical/ biological threat is slightly different to that of an explosive threat e.g. whether to open or close doors/windows. Your main priority however would be to evacuate your staff to a relative safe area . For samll items i.e. letter bombs 100 metres should suffice, for larger threats your looking at having a RVP around 400 metres away from your location. Obviously I don'tknow your type of business but I'd factor the relative risk of getting a threat and the impact of an explosion within your work environment i.e are there flammable materials around ? .A Risk assesment should give you a better idea of this. Other factors would be ensuring staff are kept together(for as long as possible) at your RVP incase the emergency services wish to speak to them to gather evidence. THis I'm told is an important point as the bomb disposal guys like to know what their going into - which is fair enough i suppose ! Some factors have been discussed in other posts other incidentals would be to include clear access RVP's for the emergency Services. If access areas are congested during peak times then try to have a plan b in place. Finally use the 4 C's as an aide memoir - Confirm (is it a viable threat ? - it helps if you have a rough idea what to look for, alot harder in practice i know but limited in the answer i can give but just make sure staff don;t go poking around in suspect bags etc looking for 'wires, fuses' etc if it don't look right and the staff are deemed competent enough, then take their evidence at face value ), Clear ( clear the area - staff and others evacuation plan), Cordon ( cordon off the area but ensuring the emergency services have clear access i.e. no obstructions in the path of the suspect device ). To be honest there's so much more you could cover but also make sure you have plans of the building/ as well as clear directions to your RVP's and potential ICP's to co-ordinate your efforts. P.S. if you were unfortunate to have an incident then having some kind of media response at the ready is always handy !!