The 2015 NFPA 1620 spells out the preplanning process to help protect occupants, response personnel, property, and the environment.

NFPA 1620: Standard for Pre-Incident Planning is used by the fire service, facilities managers, and city planners and administrators to develop pre-incident plans to assist responding personnel in effectively managing emergencies and destructive events.

A detailed and effective preplan not only assists incident commanders in developing the right strategies, it can help apparatus officers make correct initial decisions during a structural fire or other event. There's a greater need for emergency responders to be ready for a wider range of scenarios, including epidemics and destructive weather events. Proper preplanning can also help identify ways to efficiently and safely evacuate areas.

With expanded concerns, planners need a broader vision in which to gather information and improve the plan. For the 2015 NFPA 1620:

• The Standard's Technical Committee provided greater emphasis on an All Hazards approach to pre-incident planning, to help maximize community resources.
• New information on mass gatherings is also included, in light of recent incidents such as the Boston Marathon bombings involving terrorism and other mass casualty incidents involving hazardous materials.

Maximize resources to minimize loss! Use NFPA 1620 to develop an effective and comprehensive preplan.

NFPA 1620 also contains pre-incident planning case histories and information addressing special or unique characteristics of specific occupancy classifications, as well as sample forms for pre-incident planning.