Emergency Response
Prepare before anything happens
Emergency response begins with knowing the site's emergency plan, muster points, alarm types, evacuation routes, equipment locations (fire extinguishers, AED, first aid), and the chain of command. Guards are often first on scene but are not incident commanders; their job is to alert, protect life, contain if safe, and support responders.
Priority order
Life safety first, then property protection, then preservation of the scene. For fire: sound the alarm, call for help, evacuate, never re-enter. For medical emergencies: call emergency services, provide first aid within training, and document. For suspicious packages or threats: do not touch, isolate the area, notify. For bomb threats, follow the site's checklist and gather information from the caller if trained. For active threats, follow site policy - typically flee if safe, hide if not, and fight only as a last resort.
Coordination and handover
When police, fire or paramedics arrive, the guard provides a concise briefing: what happened, where, when, who is involved, what has been done, and what hazards remain. Then the guard follows direction. Preserve the scene: restrict access, avoid moving items, and record who entered.
Traps
Exams test whether you re-enter a building for belongings (no), whether you delay evacuation to finish a report (no), and whether you attempt tasks beyond your training. Another trap is failing to document the emergency after it ends.
Rule of thumb
Alert, evacuate, contain only if safe, then brief. If you are unsure whether an action is safe, it is not your action to take.
Worked example
A small fire starts in a storage room. The guard pulls the alarm, calls 911, evacuates the floor, confirms the muster count, and meets firefighters at the entrance with the room location and contents. The guard does not attempt to fight a fire beyond a trained, incipient-stage response.