Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
over a 24 hour period, the fi re evacuation drills should be
arranged in such a way that staff on each shift are provided
with the opportunity to rehearse their actions.
A critical element in the rehearsal for an emergency
is the debrief, which if omitted negates the purpose of
the exercise as key learning opportunities are lost.
10.3 Emergency evacuation procedures
Decisions relating to the method of emergency evacuation
are made at the time a building is designed and
based on such factors as the proposed purpose group
and the size of the building. Once a building is occupied,
it will be necessary to devise detailed emergency
evacuation procedures that take into account the design
features and fi xed installation of a building. Since the
introduction of the RRSFO, the person responsible for
planning and implementing emergency evacuation procedures
is the person identifi ed as being ‘responsible’
for fi re safety management.
When devising emergency procedures the responsible
person will need to consider:
➤ The characteristics of the occupants, their disposition
within the building, their physical and mental state
Figure 10.20 Visual representation of an emergency
evacuation procedure
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➤ The characteristics of the building in terms of its
size, use and construction
➤ The physical provisions for means of escape in the
building
➤ The circumstances under which it will be necessary
to evacuate
➤ What the arrangements are for fi ghting the fi re
➤ What type of evacuation will be appropriate, e.g.
phased or full
➤ How the evacuation is to be initiated
➤ What arrangements are needed to call the fi re service
➤ What special roles are required to support the procedure,
e.g. fi re warden and fi re incident controllers
➤ What information, instruction and training is necessary
to support the procedure.
The fi re risk assessment will provide much of this information
and it will also give an indication of the time
available for the occupants of a building to reach a place
of safety. In most cases, the full evacuation of a building
should be achieved in the region of 2.5–3 minutes. This
time will be extended where a phased/sequential procedure
is adopted.
10.3.1 The procedure
The procedure should cover:
➤ What to do on discovering a fi re or smell smoke
➤ What to do on hearing the alarm
➤ Roles and responsibilities of staff, e.g. conducting in
assisting disabled occupants
➤ Arrangements for calling the fi re service
➤ How to save time, e.g. leaving personal belongings
behind
➤ Where to evacuate to
➤ Any special precautions that may need to be taken.
Clear concise arrangements should be displayed; they
may also be supplemented by additional information such
as escape route plans in hotels and licensed premises.
10.3.2 Competent staff
In order to ensure the safe evacuation of people in the
event of fi re it is not possible merely to rely on building
design, adequate means of escape, fi re alarms, emergency
lighting, etc. In all but the smallest workplaces it
will be necessary to have staff that have been trained
to assist with emergency evacuation. Specifi cally those
people responsible for fi re safety within buildings and
outside venues will need to consider the provision of
fi re wardens/marshals, crowd safety stewards, fi re alarm
verifi ers and fi re incident controllers.