Baton Rouge LA — In anticipation of Hurricane Katrina, Deputy Chief Daniel Garcia, Deputy Fire Chief and Vice President of Industrial Emergency Services, L.L.C., activated the IES Louisiana Operations Emergency Communications Center Sunday, 28 August, 2005.

IES Corporate Headquarters, in Corpus Christi Texas, dispatched an additional command vehicle and a technical rescue trailer to further enhance the Louisiana Operations capability. Technical, research and communications support personnel were temporally assigned to the IES LA Ops office. The IES technical information team provided Chief Garcia with dispersion models for potential Petrochemical releases based on probable wind / flood damage to the plants and refineries IES currently protects. Other members of the technical team published and reviewed the latest MSDS (Material Data Handling Sheets). Deputy Chief Garcia wanted verification that all necessary PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) was identified, and if necessary, ready for immediate use. “Industrial Emergency Services takes the stewardship of the facilities entrusted to our care, as well as all of Louisiana’s industrial critical infrastructure very seriously,” said IES Fire Chief and President, Robert C. Andrews, Jr. “We understand that the plants and the surrounding communities depend on skill, training and readiness of our professional industrial firefighters.”

Industrial Emergency Services, L.L.C. recently extended its scope of responsibility to the local community when Daniel Garcia, Deputy Fire Chief and Vice President of Industrial Emergency Services, L.L.C. (IES) signed an agreement with St. James Parish and it’s Rapid Assessment Team (PRAT) to provide services from the cooperative Industrial Fire Station, located in St. James Parish, Louisiana. IES will provide emergency response, technical rescue stand-by, training and maintenance/inspection services. This innovative model of public/private cooperation was developed under the leadership, guidance and foresight of Dale Hymel, Jr. the St. James Parish President. Gerald Falgoust, Director of Emergency Preparedness for St. James Parish along with representatives of the St. James Parish Community Awareness Emergency Response Committee (CAER) headed by Lenny Roussel, and Daniel Garcia, will administer the agreement, which forms a basis for a unique and timely Partnership in Preparedness and Emergency Response. The St. James Parish Director or Assistant Director will be responsible for activating IES under this agreement. IES will report to the St. James Parish Director or Assistant Director for any response.

The St. James Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness uses the PRAT model to effectively plan, identify and secure the necessary resources, and training for flexible and efficient disaster response. Working with its strategic partners, the St. James PRAT maintains and improves their capability to successfully prepare for, respond to, mitigate and recover from all-hazards related emergencies and disasters. The St. James Parish PRAT team’s main purpose will be to reduce the loss of life and property by responding to catastrophic incidents. They will also respond to other member parishes by request when that particular parish’s resources have been overwhelmed. The PRAT team will respond to an incident in the six-parish region, and any other parts of the state, if needed.

The leader in comprehensive in-plant emergency response, IES was established in 1999 to meet the rapidly growing demand for professional, cost-effective emergency response and related safety services to the oil, chemical and other high-hazard industries.

Industrial Emergency Services, L.L.C. (IES) has initiated a Cooperative Industrial Fire Station located in St. James Parish, Louisiana. This Cooperative Fire Station Program provides a fire station, equipment and personnel to the local industrial area. This makes available, reliable and effective emergency response assistance to industrial sites in St. James, Ascension and St. John Parishes. In this program, the collective cost of the “Cooperative Industrial Fire Station” is shared amongst the participating industrial facilities in the area.

The primary focus of the program is to provide emergency response services for fires, hazardous materials emergencies, technical rescue situations and emergency medical services. As an additional benefit, the emergency responders are available to provide a variety of emergency response related training, inspection, testing and maintenance services to the participating facilities.

The result has been a reliable, predictable and effective emergency response effort, with excellent response times and effective incident control. The inherent benefit of cooperative cost and service sharing yields a very reasonable expense to each participating facility.

IES is also developing a working relationship with Nicky Prejean, owner of Southland Fire and Safety to provide equipment such as fire trucks and other pertinent equipment needed for emergency response in order to support IES as they assist St. James Parish and respond to private industry members during offensive operations.

31 August 2005