Emergency planning

Emergency planning

In the event of a major emergency, we can help in a number of ways:

• make buildings such as leisure and community centres available to people
• provide health and safety advice on cleaning up after major flooding or pollution
• assess structural damage to buildings, and
• co-ordinate and lead multi-agency meetings to plan recovery.

We're also a member of the Belfast Emergency Preparedness Group (previously Belfast Resilience Forum) which brings together over 65 different organisations who work together to plan how to help the public in an emergency.

In the event of a serious emergency such as a serious chemical spillage, a fatal accident in a workplace or a dangerous building that is likely to collapse, please report to us:

During office hours: 028 9027 0428 
Out of office hours: 07850 499 622 or 028 9027 0275

Report a problem in an emergency

• To report a fault or problem with your electricity supply, please call NIE on 03457 643 643
• To report a problem with your water supply, please call NI Water on 03457 44 00 88
• If you smell gas, call the NI Gas Emergency Service on 0800 002 001

Preparing for an emergency

In a major emergency, it may be some time before the emergency services can help you.

The household emergency life-saving plan gives you a list of useful contact numbers in an emergency and also tells you what you should have in your household emergency pack.

Visit nidirect to download the household emergency life-saving plan (link opens in new window)

Keep your completed plan somewhere safe where you can easily find it in an emergency.

For more information check the following:

• Be ready for emergencies (ni direct)
• Preparing for flooding (ni direct)
• Winter help and advice (ni direct)
• Don't wait, insulate (NI Water)
• UK Resilience (Gov.uk)
• Winter wrapped up (Age NI)

What to do in an emergency

If there's an emergency, remember to:

• stay calm, reassure others and think before acting
• don't put yourself or others in danger
• follow the advice of the emergency services
• if people are injured or there is a threat to life call 999 or 112.

If there is a fire or other danger in your building, quickly and calmly leave by the nearest safe route and move to a safe location away from the building. Do not try to return until the emergency services tell you it is safe to do so.

Power cuts

If your power has been affected by bad weather, please call NIE on 03457 643 643.

Flooding

If you experience flooding, please call the Flooding Incident Line on 0300 2000 100.

• Read more about advice for flooding

Critical care registers

• If you or someone in your family relies on electricity or water due to a medical condition you should sign up to the NI Electricity or NI Water critical care registers.  Examples include people on a ventilator or with a stair lift or electric hoist in their home. 
• Find out more about who is eligible and how to register on the NI Electricity website (link opens in new window) or by calling them on 03457 643 643.
• If you have a serious medical condition and you rely on having water, you should sign up to NI Water’s customer care register. You can find out more on the NI Water website (link opens in new window) or by calling Waterline on 08457 44 00 88.

Communities

In an emergency, often friends, neighbours and members of the local community work together to help each other. Some communities have started to develop their own community emergency plan for their area. 

If you are thinking about starting a community emergency plan in your area, please email belfastresilience@belfastcity.gov.uk for more information.

Businesses

Employers have a responsibility for the safety and security of their staff. All businesses should have arrangements in place to deal with the impact of a major incident or disaster. 

To help local businesses to prepare for emergencies, we've produced a template site specific plan which you can use to develop your internal emergency or major incident plan.

Belfast Resilience and its members also run regular business continuity events for local businesses. 

If you would like to request a copy of our template site specific plan, or attend our next event, please email belfastresilience@belfastcity.gov.uk. 

You can find guidance on preparing your business for emergencies on the NI Business Info website (link opens in new window).

Schools

All schools have plans to cope with local emergencies such as fire and flood. Make sure you find out in advance what your school’s emergency arrangements are.  It is also useful to plan who you will ask to collect your children from school if you are unable to do so in an emergency.

The Regional Community Resilience Group (RCRG) Newsletter

Keeping members weather ready

The Winter 2019 edition of the Regional Community Resilience Group Newsletter is available to read at infrastructure-ni.gov.uk.