Emergency Maintenance: How to Stop Panic & Start Planning

When equipment fails without warning, every minute matters. Emergency maintenance isn’t just inconvenient — it’s the scramble that tests how well your organization can respond under pressure. Whether it’s a hospital facing a power outage or an apartment building flooded from a burst water line, the stakes move fast. Safety, downtime and reputation are all on the line. After reviewing dozens of maintenance logs and response reports, one pattern stood out — teams that plan for emergencies recover hours sooner and spend far less on repairs.

This guide covers emergency maintenance: what it is, when you need it and how it differs from other types of maintenance. You’ll also learn how to build a plan that keeps panic out of the process. 

Why Is Emergency Maintenance Important?

Emergency maintenance involves immediate, unplanned repairs to protect people, property, profits and your business’ future. While sometimes called reactive maintenance, emergency maintenance poses an immediate threat and demands a much more immediate response than other reactive strategies.

For example, a restaurant with a gas leak needs emergency maintenance. It’s one thing to ask customers to leave for their own safety, but if left untreated, the gas leak could turn into a fire that spreads throughout the building. Even with insurance, the financial damage could be enough to permanently close the restaurant.

So, when an emergency maintenance situation is detected, it needs to be addressed right away, rather than figuring it out when you have time.

When Is Maintenance Considered an Emergency?

Urgent versus emergency maintenance is separated by one question: Can you delay the repair without causing major harm? In general, think of urgent maintenance as something that needs to be done tomorrow, whereas emergency maintenance is something that needs immediate attention.

Imagine an airplane with a sensor malfunction just before takeoff versus a Wi-Fi failure during the flight. The sensor issue would likely require emergency maintenance so that the plane can take off as soon as possible. The Wi-Fi issue, while inconvenient, could probably be addressed when there’s a break in the flight schedule for that aircraft.

Examples of Emergency Maintenance

To give a clearer picture of what defines emergency maintenance work, here are a few common examples:

• Burst pipe: Water leaks can cause cause significant property damage or flooding that endangers people. This is generally an emergency wherever it occurs.
• Gas leak: Inhaling gas could physically harm people, and a natural gas leak could cause a fire. This also tends to be an emergency wherever it occurs.
• Refrigerator breaks down at a restaurant: Some emergency situations are more context-dependent. If a refrigerator breaks down at a consulting firm’s office, it would be considered a non-emergency maintenance issue. But if a refrigerator breaks down at a restaurant, it’s a top priority due to food-safety reasons.
• Broken HVAC during a heatwave: While HVAC repairs aren’t always urgent, some situations require emergency maintenance — for instance, if a hospital needs to keep the air-conditioning temperature at a safe level for patients during a heatwave.
• Key-card system stops working at a hotel: In order for guests to safely and conveniently access their rooms, the hotel may need to fix the system right away. 

Emergency vs. Reactive Maintenance

Emergency maintenance could be considered a type of reactive maintenance that’s more urgent than other reactive approaches. So, reactive maintenance is the broad category of repairs done after an issue is identified, like a faulty machine. But reactive maintenance can turn into an emergency if it threatens people’s health or company finances.

For example, if you run a gym and a treadmill stops working, reactive maintenance might involve making a maintenance request for a technician to come the following day to repair it. However, a blaring alarm during business hours is an electrical issue demanding emergency maintenance. This prevents closure and customer frustration.

Emergency vs. Preventive Maintenance

While emergency maintenance is a subset of reactive maintenance, the opposite of that is considered preventive maintenance. Rather than responding to problems, a preventive maintenance program aims to keep assets running properly before a significant issue arises. In other words, emergency maintenance falls under the reactive maintenance umbrella, while preventive maintenance is considered a proactive maintenance approach.

Preventive maintenance can occur in several ways. For one, it might be scheduled, such as if you have your HVAC system inspected every six months. Another type of preventive maintenance is predictive maintenance. It uses technology like sensors to identify issues before they turn into significant problems.

For example, a pressure sensor can identify a pipe burst risk, avoiding costly emergency maintenance. Other preventive maintenance, like scheduled cleaning or filter replacement, improves function and reduces emergency maintenance requests.

Creating an Emergency Maintenance Plan

You cannot know about an emergency situation in advance, but you can prepare by creating an emergency maintenance plan. Doing so can help your team handle an emergency more efficiently, rather than trying to figure out the proper protocol in the heat of the moment. A solid emergency maintenance plan should include the following steps:

1. Develop a team of emergency technicians.

Pre-select contacts for every emergency: think plumbers, electricians and specialty equipment techs. Make sure you select professionals or companies that offer 24/7 service, as you never know when an emergency will occur. And keep a clear, centralized list of all emergency contacts, so your staff knows who to call.

2. Define responsibilities.

In addition to knowing who to contact in case of emergency, you need clearly defined emergency maintenance responsibilities so employees know what to do in these situations. For example, clearly state that employees must first contact the facility manager to assess the emergency. From there, the protocol might be that the manager contacts the appropriate emergency technician. At the same time, you might define responsibilities so that employees know who’s responsible in the event the manager is unavailable.

3. Clarify who will be reporting the completed work. 

In addition to defining responsibilities during the emergency event, it’s important to clarify a reporting protocol. For example, if your HVAC system needs an emergency repair, you would likely want to maintain a record of that as part of scheduling a follow-up inspection. So, employees should be clear about who reports that the work is done and how that’s recorded. Using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software to track asset downtime and routine maintenance is an effective way to record work. 

4. Dedicate time to assess future risk management. 

Lastly, an emergency maintenance plan should also involve a post-game recap of sorts. Not only do you want to report on the work that was done, but you should ideally review what happened and see if you can come up with a plan to try to prevent those types of issues from happening in the future. So, your plan might involve a protocol like holding a meeting between the facilities or maintenance teams and the lines of business affected by the emergency the day after it occurs.

How a CMMS Can Help

Emergency maintenance should be a last resort. Ideally, you can get ahead of a system failure before it puts lives or livelihoods at risk. Using CMMS software can make it easier to assign, track and report on preventive maintenance tasks for key equipment and assets. It can help create work orders for everything from conducting carbon monoxide tests and checking smoke detectors to having a renter report a clogged toilet to a property management company. That way, everyone can get on the same page, and you can reduce the risks of maintenance issues festering until they turn into emergencies.

A top equipment maintenance software like Coast can also be used for teams to communicate with each other in real time about maintenance concerns. That way, even if you’re using reactive maintenance strategies, you can address the issue quickly before it becomes a full-fledged emergency.

See for yourself how Coast’s CMMS can help you streamline maintenance needs and prevent emergencies. Sign up for a free account today.