24 Hour Incident Response Availability
From the moment you call us to notify us of an emergency, we become an integrated and integral part of your response team, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for as long as you need us.
24 Hour Incident Response Availability
From the moment you call us to notify us of an emergency, we become an integrated and integral part of your response team, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for as long as you need us.
Irrespective of when you need us, where you need us, or what you need – we are there to assist in your time of need. Once a notification has been received – based on the known facts, we will evaluate the level of response required and provide you with our recommended course of action.
Within 2 hours of activation, an Assessment Team will be deployed to the incident location and, in addition, you will have access 24 x 7 to at least one incident experienced Director throughout the response.
24 Hour Incident Response by our Directors and Managers
The Blake Emergency Services Team are experienced incident response professionals – they have hands on experience of global disaster management and crisis events. You will be assigned a team to work closely with you – every step of the way.
A Director and Senior Adviser will be based at your head office – liaising with external 3rd parties, such as the Police and local Government bodies. A Specialist Adviser and Team will also be deployed to the incident location, and any other location as necessary. At all times the care and welfare of those affected by the event are our highest priority.
Immediate Response Assessment Team
An Assessment Team can be en route within 2 hours of activation to the incident location. Once there, based on the knowledge and experience, they can determine the likely personnel and equipment required to respond professionally, compassionately and effectively to the incident.
The Assessment Team will be sent based on the information that is available at the time, as well as drawing on our past incident response experience. The Assessment Team will then report back to you and your insurers on the findings and recommendations.
An appropriate course of action can then be agreed with you and the appropriate actions taken and implemented.
Crisis Communication
If you are facing an emergency incident – communication with the external world is crucial, as well as communication with your wider internal workforce. In the modern world there is nowhere to hide in a crisis situation – 24 hour news, social media and the citizen journalist put pressure on an already difficult situation.
The Blake Emergency Services Crisis Communications Service is an optional service and can assist if you choose to add this service. As part of the Incident Response Team – we will assign a Crisis Communications Specialist to work with you at a location to suit you.
We will advise, direct and support you with all communication channels – traditional, social media and website messages, as well as internal communication.
On-Site Disaster Management
Maintaining control of the incident is crucial from start to finish. The focus of the various individuals however can mean the affected organisation itself can be ignored in key decision making matters. Your clients, your team and the families of those involved can be easily overwhelmed and at a total loss with what is happening.
Blake Emergency Services are able to assist with the On-Site Disaster Management through the provision of an incident experienced Deployment Director. Incident sites are highly stressful, emotional and challenging environments, and the Blake Emergency Services Deployment Director will advise and support your team at the incident location, as well as manage the incident locally from Blakes’ perspective.
In the early stages of an incident multiple agencies and authorities will be in attendance, with much to organise and deal with.
Care Team
The Care Team, with expert Team Leaders, will supplement your Special Assistance Team at a location determined by your specific needs. The Care Team is the link between those involved in any crisis, whether this be those directly involved, or their friends and families, and your organisation.
It is the Blake Emergency Services Care Team who make us what we are.
Each of our Care Team members is able to provide support to family members during a response to ensure that the families feel cared for and supported. Whether this is just after the incident has occurred, in the Family Assistance Centre or at the anniversary ceremony, commemorating the incident, we will be there with you supporting you and the families affected all the way.
We provide expertise across all sectors – for example, funeral directors who are able to accompany family members to the mortuary and advise and support families on the whole repatriation process, or mental health experts who can provide therapeutic support in the weeks and months after the incident.
Family Assistance Centre
The establishment of an appropriate Family Assistance Centre (FAC) or Humanitarian Assistance Centre (HAC) is more than just best practice, it is increasingly becoming a legal requirement.
In the event of an incident the Blake Emergency Services Team can identify an appropriate location for the Family Assistance Centre (FAC) / Humanitarian Assistance Centre (HAC) – usually a hotel, where a range of immediate need services can be made available. The FAC/HAC is a safe space, free from the media, for the families to gather to attend update briefings, obtain the latest information, and provide information to aid the locating and identification of their loved one, and access other services as may be required.
Establishing an FAC/HAC isn’t an easy task, it takes time and complex logistics to customise each Centre to the demands of a specific incident. This is where our multi-faceted, multi-lingual Blake Emergency Services Team comes into its own, as they are trained and experienced in quickly setting up a Centre that meets the needs of the survivors, the families and the country in which the Centre is being established.
Search and Recovery
Searching for and recovering human remains is a highly skilled process that wherever possible should be completed forensically and with dignity and respect.
By choosing Blake Emergency Services as your Emergency Incident Response Services Partner, you will have access to our qualified Blake Emergency Services Human Remains Recovery Team. This is a highly qualified Team of experienced Forensic Anthropologists, essential to support the investigative requirements of International evidence recovery.
All recovered remains are discreetly and sensitively transported to the mortuary and recorded. In case they are required as part of the Identification Commission process at a later point.
Mortuary Operations
For families bereaved, we understand the need and importance of their wishes being observed, sensitively and discreetly. The Blake Emergency Services Mortuary Team comprises qualified, skilled and experienced Funeral Directors, Embalmers and Mortuary Technicians.
We have experience of and are content to work with other qualified parties in the Emergency Mortuary, including INTERPOL. In addition, and if required, we can establish a temporary mortuary using our own equipment. All of the required equipment can be rapidly deployed to the crisis location, allowing us to establish and operate a Mass Fatality Emergency Mortuary pretty much anywhere in the world at short notice.
Disaster Victim Identification (DVI)
Unfortunately, it is rarely possible to positively identify a victim of a major disaster by visual recognition – usually anti-mortem and post-mortem data is required. Anti-mortem data includes data such as dental and medical records, fingerprints and DNA. This identification process is complex and time consuming and some countries do not have the resources to undertake this task.
Blake Emergency Services performs this to INTERPOL Standards and uses Internationally recognised DNA sequencing laboratories. We have our own DVI Equipment including fingerprint kits, DNA sample kits, as well as portable x-ray equipment, which can be deployed as required rapidly and securely.
Our Team comprises highly qualified, skilled and experienced Forensic Pathologists, Forensic Orthodontists, Forensic Anthropologists, Forensic Archaeologists, Fingerprint Specialists and DNA specialists to ensure the critical process of DVI is conducted, correctly, accurately and discreetly.
Personal Belongings Management
Following a disaster the personal belongings of those who lost their lives in a mass fatality can take on a huge significance to the bereaved families. We can manage these services close to the incident location, at your facility, or from our UK facilities.
Blake Emergency Services has extensive experience in the following key services:
- Personal Belongings Recovery
- Data Management
- Cleaning and Sanitizing
- Photographing and Cataloguing
- Associating and Returning
- Safe Storage
- Secure disposal of unclaimed personal belongings
Blake Emergency Services has extensive experience in the following key services:
- Personal Belongings Recovery
- Data Management
- Cleaning and Sanitizing
- Photographing and Cataloguing
- Associating and Returning
- Safe Storage
- Secure disposal of unclaimed personal belongings
Personal Belongings Catalogues
Once personal belongings have been cleaned, sanitised and photographed they are then catalogued ready to be claimed by the families. Historically personal belongings catalogues have been huge documents, and for over 15 years we have been producing these for our clients.
For over 8 years though, Blake Emergency Services has also produced secure online personal belongings catalogues for survivors and families to review to make the process much more effective and far less daunting.
All catalogues produced in a range of different languages as required.
Blake Operations Centre
The Blake Operations Support Team will be active throughout the response. This Team, normally based at Blake’s Head Office, is responsible for arranging flights, visas (where applicable), accommodation and all other logistical support that the Blake’s Team at the incident location may require.
The overall Incident Director is also normally based within the Operations Support function. This means that whilst the Team Director and other Team Members are on their way to you, you will have on-going contact and support with Blake Emergency Services, providing you with the advice and support you need. This Team will be operational 24 hours a day for as long as is necessary.
Data Management
Large quantities of information are gathered during the response to an incident, potentially across multiple locations, to enable us to identify those directly involved, as well as their families, loved ones and personal belongings.
We designed our own in-house system to record this information based on our own response experience, whether it comes in to our call centre, is collected at the Family Assistance Centre, or at any other location.
We hold Cyber Essentials and IASME certifications.
Emergency Management
We will send an incident experienced Director to your Emergency Management Centre (EMC) to support you and provide you with advice and guidance during the response.
This Director will sit with your Emergency Management Centre Team for as long as you need. The guidance and advice provided will be based on our international incident response experience. This person can look at the bigger picture and provide advice based on what we have seen happen when certain decisions have been made in previous incidents.
Post Incident Activities
Although not immediately required, post incident activities are just as integral to a response. We can support you through this stage of a response as well.
