In the summer of 2007, Margaret Cruz learned the importance of planning for emergencies. Her pizzeria, Margarita’s Pizzeria in State College, Pa., was destroyed by a fire.
She was on her way to work when she got the call.
“One of my employee’s dad is a fireman,†Cruz said. “He heard about the fire on the scanner. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
It took Cruz about 10 minutes to drive to the pizzeria. By that time, her business was engulfed in flames.
Experts in disaster prevention recommend that operators like Cruz write an emergency plan to better cope with crime, fires or natural disasters if they occur. Having such a plan in place, they say, is the key to protecting a business and its future.
While no one likes to think about the devastation a disaster can create, fires, earthquakes and tornados do happen. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the number of declared major disasters nearly doubled in the 1990s compared to the previous decade.
“The irony of (emergency planning) is you want to be prepared for something, but it’s not like you want to practice being prepared for it,” said Andrew Hatzis, vice president of operations and training for ADIR Restaurants Inc., master franchisor of fried chicken restaurant Pollo Campero. “You want to be prepared for something, but at the same time, you hope it’s never something that happens to you.”
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