nov-dec-2019

Year. Congratulations to Mary Ann, Plant Director Dennis Bettencourt, and the entire Salida team. On May 13th, at 9:30 p.m., I arrived home from Oakdale after a full day of Grower Liaison meetings. As I walked into my home, my phone started buzzing with text messages. “Fire in Sacramento,” “Turn on your TV,” “Call me.” Never will I forget that night. Sacramento fire heroes Song Fang, Operations Manager, and Anne Root Becraft, Occupational Health and Safety Manager also joined me for an interview. MARK: Song, for you the fire must have been even more dramatic! SONG: On the night of fire, I was the first manager on the scene. At 9:07 pm, one of the supervisors called me and said “Song, we have a problem with the dryers. I need you immediately.” At the time, I was at the other side of our two million square foot Sacramento plant. It took me two minutes to walk briskly to the dryer area. When I arrived I saw billowing smoke. Based on my experience, I told the supervisor and operators to evacuate the entire facility. Our first priority is to make sure that everyone is safe. MARK: In a huge plant, how do we successfully evacuate 150 people in eight minutes ? SONG: In emergency evacuation, everyone takes their role as trained by Health & Safety. While some of the supervisors led the team members to the muster point, others confirmed that each of the production areas were cleared. Several times, the entire team had trained on emergency evacuations. As a result, people did not panic and knew what they needed to do. After doing my own sweep of the manufacturing area, I went to the front lobby of the plant and I noticed many fire trucks had already arrived and firefighters were ready to enter the facility. MARK: How did the Sacramento fire department arrive so quickly ? SONG: As I issued the evacuation order, Security called saying the fire alarm system was triggered. Should we call the Fire Department ? Obviously, I said “Yes!” MARK: Thank you for your decisive leadership! Sacramento is a historic plant and great news that we could not recall a disaster of any magnitude. And we have some long memories! Anne, as Sacramento Safety Manager, why was the plant so well prepared ? ANNE: Three and a half years ago, I came to Blue Diamond from a plant where we manufactured glass bottles. There were literally tons of molten glass and there were fires there regularly. MARK: So you had perspective on disasters ? ANNE: Yes. Our plant in Sacramento has five stories and two million square feet under roof. It’s a maze to navigate. I knew an emergency preparedness plan would be one of my first orders of business. We put together a team made up of individuals from all departments who were passionate about safety. First, we mapped out the evacuation routes in the entire plant. Then, posted signs next to every single stairway and exit door. Next, we worked on fire extinguisher training and evacuation practice. We also developed a notification process which used air horns and practiced having designated people in each area make sure everyone else gets out safely. MARK: That night you were the incident commander and seemed to have great rapport with the fire department ? ANNE: One of my other priorities was to develop a relationship with local first responders. A few months after I arrived, I invited them to visit. We toured the facility and talked about potential hazards, some of their experiences on the site, and our plans to build Confined Space entry and Emergency Responder teams. Of course, we also sent them away with a few cases of almonds from the gift store! MARK: Well done! How did this relationship-building help on the night of the fire ? PRESIDENT’S CORNER 1 0 A L M O N D F A C T S