When disasters strike, every second counts. That is no different in the commercial environment. From burst pipes to fire damage and beyond, the difference between quick response and recovery and prolonged downtime come down to one thing: preparation. In this Q&A with George Hernandez, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations and Signal Liaison at PuroClean, he shares his insights on the critical role that emergency management planning plays in your business. He shares his thoughts on common vulnerabilities, the value of being proactive and how PuroClean helps businesses minimize their risk, reduce damage and recover quicker when the unexpected happens.

1. What are the most common vulnerabilities you see in commercial properties, and how does PuroClean tailor risk assessments to address those specific threats?

In my opinion, I think the biggest risk is the lack of planning. By not having a plan up front before a disaster emergency happens, it causes delayed reactions on the backend. For example, something that comes to mind right away is, who is the decision maker? When a loss occurs in the building, who is making that decision to move forward with mitigation, restoration, and all that, because minutes matter, and those minutes – the longer a loss is occurring, the severity increases significantly, even exponentially! Run a 3-inch pipe that’s broken for 30 seconds, and you’re going to have so much damage. Run it for a minute, and the damage grows by 5-10; it’s not just a one-to-one correlation.
 
And then time: the more damage that occurs, the longer it takes that building to get back to its pre-loss condition, back to operations, and so forth. If it’s an office space, you have tenants that have been displaced; if it’s a manufacturing warehouse, you’re down from production; if it’s retail, that store is closed. 

In commercial, we always say, “time is of the essence,” and by having our assessments and our emergency management plans in place, we’re reducing the amount of time that it takes to respond, to act, and the amount of damage that happens.

2. How can regular maintenance prevent costly disasters, and what proactive services does PuroClean recommend most frequently to business owners?

Ensuring that systems work as they are designed to is always a priority. Mechanical systems —if they are not maintained, they will leak and cause damage, or they’ll shut down, and you cannot occupy the building because it’s too hot. But especially emergency systems — having an emergency sprinkler system that doesn’t work and a fire occurs, of course, the damage is much greater — not only the damage to the structure, but now you’re putting life safety at risk.

One that we see a lot of is alarm systems not functioning properly. They’re always going off by mistake. So, the alarm goes off by mistake, it doesn’t get taken care of, the fire department responds, and after they respond so many times, they start fighting you, so people just take it offline. Once again, increased damage, but the biggest thing is life safety concerns.

So, one of the ways we drive good behavior on maintenance is with part of our emergency management plan. We ask for documentation on maintenance, so at least we’re putting it top of mind to say, “hey, when is the last time that you serviced the elevator? When was the last time you had your sprinkler system checked? When was your last maintenance on your mechanical systems?” That way, if they hadn’t thought about it, it brings it top of mind. If they choose to intentionally not do it, there’s not much we can do, but at least we’re bringing it to their attention, and we’re asking for documentation to make it happen.

3. What are the essential components of an effective disaster response plan, and how does PuroClean help businesses ensure they’re fully equipped for emergencies?

The biggest benefit we get with our emergency management plan is getting the information up front on how to respond to a specific disaster. Our response to water is different from our response to fire, and so on, and so, by having an understanding of the building, the decision makers, who the tenants are, who are the key subcontractors or vendors for that property, where do we park, what stairs do we use, what elevators are ok for us to deploy into… by getting all of the information up front, we have an action plan ready, that way, when we get there, we’re not guessing, we’re not asking, we’re just going into work mode and minimizing damage.

We’re also a one-source solution for the client because we know who the mechanical contractor is, we know who the elevator company is, and we know who the security system company is. The client has to make one phone call — they activate PuroClean, we now take over that project, and we start calling everybody, but we’re using their vendors. The communication is just coming through us as the emergency management responder.

4. In what ways does partnering with a restoration expert like PuroClean provide long-term value for property owners, especially during large-scale or unexpected disasters?

So, one of the biggest things that comes to mind, and this is not a guarantee, but by having an emergency management plan, you’re creating a reduction in risk; less severity. So, your loss, if one occurs, will typically be smaller and less time-consuming than if you don’t have a plan, so that can correlate to some insurance savings: We present the plan to the broker, the broker assesses it, presents it to the carrier, and there may be some kind of reduction for having that plan in place. Hey — 10% of a premium is 10%!

Number two, as I mentioned already, is the reduction in damage. By having a partner like PuroClean who understands the building, who has walked the building when it’s in normal operating condition, we’re able to act fast and make key decisions based on what we know of the building to reduce damage, which in turn, reduces downtime. Downtime in commercial is everything. Like I explained before, you have a hotel and you lose a block of rooms for a specific amount of time, that’s going to affect revenue. By partnering with us, our clients are allowing us to respond quickly, thereby minimizing the loss, minimizing the downtime, and getting that client back up and operational in the shortest possible timeframe.

In closing:

Food for thought: A lot of companies that suffer a disaster don’t ever reopen because they don’t have a plan in place. The downtime is so significant, it just takes them out of operation forever. So, by having an emergency management plan in place with a restoration contractor like PuroClean, it increases your likelihood of recovering from a loss and continuing to operate as a business.