The objective of this final project was to develop an external emergency plan for the marshalling yards handling dangerous goods which are obligated to draw up safety reports. An external emergency plan is a document for preventing major accidents. External emergency plans are drawn up by the rescue department for premises that cause a risk of major accidents and that are defined by the Finnish Rescue Act. As the new Rescue Act obligated external emergency plans to be drawn up for marshalling yards in 2011 this final project is significant right now. The objective of this final project was to study the differences between external emergency plans of industrial establishments and marshalling yards and to draw up an external emergency plan for a marshalling yard on the basis of the data collected in this study as well as present the process to draw up an external emergency plan.

The type of study in this final project was a case study in which two industrial establishments and two marshalling yards were compared. The study was supplemented with interviews of experts, and it was limited to involve only external emergency plans and the process of making them. As a background to this final project EU legislation, the new Rescue Act from 2011 and the regulation of the Ministry of the Interior that guides external emergency plans were examined. Furthermore, the directive of the Ministry of the Interior for drawing up an external emergency plan was examined.

The study shows that there are numerous differences between the types of areas studied. The most crucial differences that involve external emergency plans were the ones considering safety culture, supervision, the location of the premises, the types of chemicals, the handling of chemicals, reaching and accessing the premises, moving around on the premises and the systems and appliances that help rescue work. The results will help the rescue authorities when drawing up external emergency plans.