Process Safety with Trish & Traci

From an 3 a.m. evacuation drill to a real fire alarm in Toronto, repeated emergencies reveal how — and how poorly — we prepare when we're away from home. Hear why Trish could be the Jessica Fletcher of the process safety world.

On this episode of Processing Safety with Trish and Traci, General Atomics safety engineer Valerie Stakes returns to discuss well-being in the safety profession, building on her 2026 ASSP conference session. She, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum explore why safety professionals — often wired to please and fix — struggle to set boundaries and how compassion fatigue, unappreciated efforts and repeated exposure to injuries and fatalities take a cumulative toll. They share personal stories of burnout, offer tips on debriefing, networking and using employee assistance programs and close with a guided breathing exercise. The episode also answers a listener’s question on the role of training in operations and emergency response.

Decades of guidance on alarm management exist. So why are control rooms still drowning in noise?

Trish Kerin breaks down the runaway reaction that triggered a mass evacuation in Orange County, California, and explains what facilities handling reactive chemicals can learn about instrumentation, warning signs and emergency communication.

Editor's Note: We mention an upcoming webinar that Trish will be hosting: a webinar focused on leadership in uncertain times — looking at key strategies and tools we can use to navigate some of the challenges we're all facing globally right now. Use the code CPREADER for $5 off.

The analog timepieces at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station offer a timeless lesson: sometimes the simplest solution is the most elegant — and the most reliable. 

Eleven refinery and fuel facility fires across four continents in roughly 60 days — that's the alarming backdrop for this episode of Process Safety with Trish and Traci. Process safety expert Trish Kerin examines whether the 2026 incidents are a statistical anomaly or a symptom of deeper systemic pressure. She points to deferred maintenance, narrowing margins and the normalization of risk during periods of production stress as key contributing factors. Kerin also addresses the unique vulnerabilities of new facilities and aging infrastructure. Her bottom line: know your controls, check that they're working and talk to your people. Stick around for the bonus material at the end.

When economic pressures mount, safety vigilance can quietly erode — and that's when incidents happen. In this episode, process safety expert Trish Kerin introduces APTBED, a practical decision-making framework for navigating volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times. The acronym covers six critical areas: Authority (know who's in charge), Psychological Safety (create space for honest information), Tacit and Explicit Knowledge (bring all knowledge into the room), Biases (recognize and manage cognitive blind spots), Expectations (manage them or people will fill the void), and Document Decisions (if it's not written down, it never happened). Good decisions and strong safety culture aren't mutually exclusive — even in a crisis.

When operators inevitably push levels to their limits, a poorly placed vapor inlet nozzle can turn a routine excursion into a tower-wrecking event.

In this episode, Stay Safe Columnist Trish Kerin reads her latest article for Chemical Processing. She's a proud GenXer, and she points out that a line from Dr. Ian Malcolm cuts to the heart of a critical distinction in process safety — the difference between what we are allowed to do and what we ought to do. You can read the column here.

When natural disasters strike industrial facilities, the results can be catastrophic — and most companies aren't ready. In this episode of Process Safety with Trish and Traci, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum explore NATECH events, where natural hazards collide with industrial risk. Drawing on real incidents including Arkema in Crosby, Texas, BioLab in Lake Charles and the Fukushima disaster, they examine why facilities consistently underestimate natural hazard risk, how to build truly complete ride-out and recovery plans, and why traditional PHAs fall short for NATECH scenarios. Kerin's bottom line: assume the event will happen, and prepare accordingly.