International

Industrial accident

Reviewed 2026-07-26

Use at your own risk. For education and research only. Not medical advice. Check the numbers and rules for the country you are in, because they change. Before you rely on these cards, ask a medical professional or a fire safety specialist to review them. Disclaimer

Do this first

Go into the nearest solid building, close windows and doors, switch off ventilation, and turn on the official channel. Do not drive towards the smoke.

A major accident at a plant, a rail tanker or a warehouse spreads its danger through the air. Walls between you and the cloud protect you better than running. A strange siren means go inside and shut the air out, so do not go and look.

Step by step

On an alarm, a blast or a strange spreading smell, go inside the nearest solid building at once. Shelter beats running through a cloud.
Close windows and doors, switch off ventilation, air conditioning and forced heating, and tape big gaps. Gather in an inner room upstairs, because most heavy gases hug the ground.
Turn on the official channel, national radio, a warning app or the municipality, and do exactly what it says. Sirens have different signals, so learn your local ones.
Call 112 only for injuries or immediate danger. During a big event the lines must stay free for those.
If a cloud catches you outdoors, move across the wind, not with it or against it. Cover mouth and nose with wet cloth and get behind walls.
If your skin is contaminated, take your outer clothes off outside the room where you shelter, seal them in a bag and rinse your skin thoroughly.
Leave shelter or evacuate only when the authorities say so, and by the route they name, not the shortcut past the plant.

Never do this

Never drive or walk towards smoke, vapour or the accident site for a look or a video. The second explosion and the drifting cloud take the spectators.
Never use lifts during the alarm, and never light flames or smoke if the release could be flammable.
Never call schools and relatives non-stop. Schools shelter children themselves, and one short message does more than a jammed network.

Call emergency services if

Anyone with breathing trouble, chemical burns or contamination on the skin.
Anyone injured by the blast or trapped near the site.
The accident itself, if it clearly has not been reported yet. Then clear the line.

Common questions

How do I know what the sirens mean?

Every country tests its sirens on a fixed day and publishes the signals, typically a wavering tone for general danger and a steady tone for all clear. Look up your municipality's page once, on a calm day, and learn which plant hazards exist near you.

Do household masks help against a chemical cloud?

Against gases and vapours, no. A wet cloth or an FFP mask filters only particles. That is why the advice is walls, closed windows and stopped ventilation rather than running outside in a mask.