Fire Disaster Recovery Plan free essay sample

The views discussed in this paper are as part of a study of high-rise fire which broke out in a bank in Los Angeles in the year 1988. This paper critically examines the extent of damaged caused, recovery from fire and effective planning behind it. Extent of damage caused by fire Fire disaster, when it comes, no matter how small or wide-spread, causes enormous amount of damage. Most of such damage is not recoverable and can include both loss of life and property. The fire which broke out in headquarters of First Interstate Bank led to a very dramatic and tragic situation. The fire had spread floor after the floor destroying computers and trading-room securities. The trading room, where high value transactions (amounting close of billions of dollars) were handled daily, was destroyed beyond any recognizition. The personal computer systems, workstations, mini-computers and microcomputers could not withstand gigantic temperatures of 2,000 Fahrenheit and got burnt to full. We will write a custom essay sample on Fire Disaster Recovery Plan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The banks security vault, which was stationed at a height of 11th floor, also got dismantled because of severe water damage. The ground floor of the building was the house of main downtown branch of Los Angeles and the entire floor was devastated due to water damages. Two thousand employees of the bank had to be moved out the building immediately and relocated to another place as soon as possible to start recovery of business. The telephone systems stood non-functional within minutes of breaking of fire. When the communication ceased, it created lot of other issues in the whole recovery process too. Although, First Interstate bank was saved from the brutality of life loss, yet it had to incur a lot of destitution of data and property at the data center. How did the bank recover from fire? The bank had been concerned about two main issues when a disaster may strike. First was safety of lives of people and second was creating an immunity jacket for safety and rejuvenation of all business functions. To deal with these two issues, bank had been working on a robust plan to conquer the situation and stabilize itself. It had created two plans: An Emergency Preparedness Plan and A Business Resumption Plan. When the fire broke out in the building on 4th May, the bank first made sure that the life safety issues are to be resolved. It quickly evacuated the office building, which was occupied by more than 2000 professionals. Two years back, the bank had formed a consulting team of six professionals to take care of Business Resumption Plan with utmost priority. This team helped other personnel in the bank to develop their own resumption plan as per their own and the respective teams needs. What to cover while resumption, how to do it, the recovery sites, people involved, dependencies, recovery scenarios, all critical business functions and cases were group together to come up with backup and recovery milestones. Over a period of two years, professionals worked closely with each other and employed specialized tools and applications to ensure security of data in case of disasters. The bank created a hot site for data processing apart from their main California office. Many scenarios were formulated and their responses customized as needed. Logistics is a critical concern in this regard and the bank had well predicted the need for it. It had intelligently identified a secondary level option to almost everything which is needed to rebuild a corporation and bring back its operations in place. The banks high management was very active in deploying respective staff members, their friends and emergency team with the right directions at the right time. Proper planning and execution helped the bank to come back its operations the very next day after the fire broke out which was commendable in itself. Value of an effective disaster recovery plan Disaster recovery is basically a set of processes followed in order to resume a business after a disruptive event. Anything small or big can cause a halt in business operations from a small computer virus to terrorist attacks or natural calamities. Top management of many companies tend to ignore a disaster as an unlikely event. But an adversity can come anytime and prior planning is very much needed to deal with it and overcome it. Planning is needed to ensure continuity in business so that the business keeps on making money, not only in events of big troubles, but also in the event of small interruptions like staff members sickness or departure from the company, management break-ups, supply chain problems etc. Depending upon the size of the company and scope of its work, disaster recovery plans are formalized. The most important aspect is how will the employees communicate, how and to where relocate the employees and how can the employee continue doing their jobs. It is not just the people who require more attention while re-establishment, many other elements in the company like physical hardware, company belongings, IT software and servers, all must find their place in recovery plan. Business, security, engineering, IT, administration, finance leaders should work together to make sure that nothing gets missed out. Leaders must identify people who can be held accountable for declaring a disaster and mitigate its pre and post effects. Management also should develop a soft corner at these testing times. For example, in case of natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes, employees may be dealing with more pressing concerns than getting back to work. Big companies also employ latest technology as part of their disaster recovery plans. Following are few examples: 1. Cloud computing 2. Mobile computing 3. Social Networking 4. Virtualization 5. Local mirrors of systems 6. Power surge protectors 7. Fire prevention/mitigation systems 8. Use of Anti-virus software 9. Robust Data backup Conclusion Disaster recovery is as much a part of a business as is any other. A cost-effective plan to deal with untimely interruption at work can save billions of dollars, lives and disturbances. Any disaster recovery plan should be well coordinated among various functions of a business, well thought after, well rehearsed and properly followed when needed to gain advantage out of it. References 1. Toigo, Jon William 2002, Disaster Recovery Planning: Preparing for the Unthinkable, 3rd Edition. Prentice Hall. 2. Slater, Derek. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning: The Basics Concord Monitor 2/22/10,Web. 13 Dec 2013. Available from 3. Disaster Recovery. 22 May 2013. Available from