Marina Dock Age, March/April 1999

Containing Crowds During Emergencies
by Gene Spinazola

Several years ago in an article, I said something like this: “If you have a fire at your marina, crowd control will be an issue. Little fires will bring big crowds of people, and big fires will bring bigger crowds.”

This concept varies with different types of emergencies. There will always be the hard-core, show-up-at-any-disaster type of crowd. You can count on this group to show up and be underfoot at fires, medical emergencies and even police shoot-outs.

There are good crowds and not-so-good crowds. However, a crowd and even a crowd’s temperament can be anticipated, and that’s really the point of this article. For any event at your marina, you can predict who will show up: the good crowd, the bad crowd and even the ugly crowd.

For example, if you’re hosting a black-tie charity event or an all-you-can-drink-for-$5 beer fest, you’re asking for two different crowds. You may need crowd control with each event, but the type of control may be very different. At the planning stage for each event, shouldn’t the question of crowd control be asked, examined and addressed and the responsibility assigned to someone?

If you have a fire on a boat in a slip, the first issue is that of life safety. Any training program that you conduct for your staff must emphasize life safety as the number one issue, and the first priority is “self.” Your employees need to know that their own safety is priority one and that the second issue is that of helping someone else. Too many times we assume that everyone understands this rule, but it needs to be repeated over and over again. Remember, repetition, to a point, is good.

During a boat fire, the crowd will most often be there before you and your staff. Your crowd control, however, should start before you arrive at the burning boat because your plan should incorporate into your 911 call the concept of asking for the right kind of police and medical support in addition to the fire service. Second, a staff member wearing an orange vest should direct the incoming emergency vehicles into the right location in the marina and may also redirect unnecessary traffic away from the incident.

The third step is to manage the crowd. If you have your act together and respond in a logical manner, the crowd will relinquish control, step back and let you manage the scene. But not everyone. There will be some people you will need to assure that you have control of the situation and that emergency personnel are on their way. Continue »