EPFL emergency response team: at your service 24/7
EPFL Emergency Team © VPO-SE-SIS / EPFL 2022
The EPFL campus is like a real city. Between 15’000 and 17’000 people move around it every day. Such a big concentration of people is bound to generate risks, which is why EPFL equipped itself with a specialized emergency response team.
While these past few years have been marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, EPFL found itself rather deserted. Today however, with the end of the sanitary measures and the arrival of spring weather, students, scientists and employees alike have found themselves back on campus. Not to mention the conferences, exhibitions, and workshops that are once again flourishing. While the emergency response team remained operational during those years of lull, it is now fully back to work, as is vital to the wellbeing of everyone on campus.
I didn’t expect that much activity! We respond to around 1’000 to 1’200 emergencies a year, which represent 2 to 4 emergencies a day.
The EPFL emergency response team is staffed by 7 permanent firefighters. They intervene to help people in case of incidents, fire/gas alarms or floods. They can e reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be supported by just under 50 rescue workers and 20 volunteer firefighters from the school (SDIS – EPFL). This service is completely free of charge, and the responders are trained in the specific needs of EPFL - interventions in chemical, biological and nuclear environments.
The most numerous interventions concern personal assistance. We also respond to many chemical emergencies: projections, chemical spills, experiments that go south. We also treat a lot of cuts and bites from rats. Flooding is quite frequent (accidental or natural). And finally, there are the automatic detections.
A very demanding mission for all seven firefighters, as they have to provide a permanent service on the entire campus, i.e. 64 hectares or the equivalent of 91 football fields, and for the whole of its population, which can range from 3-month-old babies in crèches to individuals over 65 years old.
Follow the EPFL emergency response team on social media to learn more about their activities!
Instagram : @pompiers_epfl
Facebook : @Pompiers de l’EPFL
