In the fall of 2010, when an explosion occurred at Chemring’s Kilgore Flares facility in Tennessee, it didn’t take long for it to become a national news story. Smoke from the plant could be seen more than 75 miles away and first reports indicated six employees were trapped. Media crews surrounded the plant where no one was trained to communicate to the media, the local residents or government officials.
When the “smoke” cleared, Bellevue Communications was hired to help the company to develop media protocols, and to perform media training. We traveled to Kilgore and eight other manufacturing sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Dakota, Illinois, North Carolina, Florida and California to conduct media trainings and to develop effective preparedness routines. We also developed an outreach campaign to local government officials. Bellevue helped each site develop an effective media list, practiced on-camera interviews and helped each operations staff develop their own emergency response plan.
Today, the company is better prepared to handle the media, local government officials, and employee communication should something occur at one of their facilities.