Evacuation Plans

There has resently been a event where the alarm has gone off at my school. when we exited out of the building we encountered that the gates, that lay on the main route to the assembly points, where locked. Is this allowed or something that may be let slide

Hola, in a 9th floor flat that is set over two floors with the sleeping accommodation on the lower floor, is there a requirement for Fire separation between floors or can it be open plan like a lot of normal houses, except upside down, so to speak. The higher risk is upstairs in the kitchen/lounge area, which also has a fire exit directly to the protected stairwell.There is a smoke alarm in the flat connected the communal alarm and also smoke extraction on the lower floor of the flat. Many thanks

Hi - we're after a bit of advice please... A room in a large college (built circa 1800's) is going to be used for large assemblies including those who may not be familiar with building layout. Floor space is 320M2, and has 2 opposite means of escape each taking occupants to a protected stairway which both discharge directly to fresh air. But both doorways are only 870mm...so when discounting one of them, the numbers reduce dramatically so the width of the doorway is being used for the capacity calculations. Now, the debate is whether we use BS9999 or DCLG guides? If we use BS9999 the width per person (for a B2 category occupancy) is 4.1mm which give…

Hi, Not sure if anyone can advise, I am currently looking at our companies emergency plan and we don't have a system to know which staff are on site. In case of fire and evacuation we wouldn't have anything to give the fire service to know if any staff were missing. Office staff isn't a problem, I can set up a register but we have mobile fitters who work out on our yard and go out to clients sites for breakdowns and I have been told they won't come to the office to sign in and out as it's not practical. Has anyone any suggestions? Many thanks,

A PEEP written for a person with mobility impairment , should that person and their buddy be leaving first in an evacuation or last ?? 3 rd floor so 3 flights of stairs ,

Hi Guys I just need a little advice on escape routes from a 4 storey building. It’s a heritage building and we’ve got 4 stairwells, 2 of which are protected stairwells - 1 protected at the NE corner of the building and 1 protected at the SE corner of the building. There’s then 1 stairwell in the NW corner and 1 stairwell in the SW corner of the building, these 2 are not protected and only run from the 1st floor to the 4th floor (they don’t lead to a place of relative or total safety). The 2 protected stairwells run from the ground to the 4th floor. My thinking is we should only be using the protected stairwells as our escape routes as these lead to a pl…

I run a recreation area (for card players) in a modern building - it is on the first floor. - We have double fire doors 132 mm wide to the play area - there is a small straight, lit corridor 145 mm wide - a flight of 22 steps 112 wide to the glass external door How many people can I have in this recreation area? This is a daytime activity (no one sleeps here!) Thank you for your advice

Hi, we are a nursing home with elderly residents. one of our residents keeps roaming through our fire exit door, we are having a keypad exit system fitted which will release on alarm sounding but as a temporary measure, would we be able to use a stairgate to prevent her from roaming but still accessible should there be a fire

We have evacuation drawing with in a comerical office building with an exiry date of 5 years (soon to expire) what is the the requirement here do we have to change these every 5 years and also our emergency plan manuals have the same expiry date is it a legal requirement to change these every 5 years or can we continue to use these as only the providers indication of expiry??

I would like to know if there is really a need of a real simulation of a fire with the fire alarm making everyone to get out of the premises of the university at least 3 times a year, at minimum. I have never seen such an eximious procedure which totally break a good hour of meditative exercise. In other public places and organizations, there is indeed a specific hour and day when the drill is operated for less than one minute and usually for two consecutive times. Thank you for clarifying me and eventually the university in case they are wrong when they say they are obliged to do it by law. I just want the best to happen for everyone by all means. Kind regar…

I recently visited a block of flats built in the early part of the 20th century. A nice character building but...there is one main door into the building. Inside there is a single central staircase with the doors to each flat (2 per floor) opening directly onto that staircase. There is no additional fire separation between the flats and the staircase. There is automatic fire detection in the communal areas and in each flat. Two questions : 1/ I was concerned about there being no fire separation between the flats and the only available staircase. To me that meant that any fire emerging from a flat would immediately compromise the escape route. Should I have been concerne…

I'm after a bit of advise from you guys as my colleagues and I have a difference of opinion regarding a issue at a care home. We are currently upgrading the alarm system and looking at the installation of Maglocks. This particular home has been given a enforcement notice by the local fire authority, and they have requested this. The difference of opinion are 2 doors along a corridor, which are close to bedrooms and as some of the residents suffer from dementia the concern is, if they were fitted with maglocks and the alarm was actuated due to a false alarm, fault etc, then these doors would open leaving the residents free to walk outside unaided. At the moment they a…

I am new to the fire risk assessment business and I have been asked to do a fra on a care home that has had a enforcement notice from the fire authority, one being a inadequate fra and no escape plan. The fra I'm fine with but ive never done a evacuation plan. I need to add at this point the home is in 2 sections, the original building with a new build added.. A stay put policy is no good as there are alarm sounders throughout both buildings, the care home staff say its a horizontal phased evacuation but no such plan is documented, so that's down to me. As both the FRA and the escape strategy will be looked at closely by the fire authority this has got me somewhat nervou…

My house is situated in a large estate with a patch of grass out front and blocked in on all other sides, with no direct road access. We are roughly 19 meters from the road. The local estates office have decided to put up fencing around the grassed area and when we have expressed concern that there would be no fire access to our house or the 5 other house on this site we were informed the fire brigade will just "run over" the fencing? Is this true? Or is this in fact restricting emergency access? Thank you for your advise in this matter Sophie

Hi, I have got a site drawing that we want make into a "Fire Escape Plan" and display it in the factory. We want to put symbols on to show fire exits with a green/white "running man" and fire points with a red/white "fire extinguisher" etc. Do you know where we can get CAD "dwg" symbols we can add into the drawing please? I seem to be able to find engineering type symbols but they need to be pictorial that any layman can follow. Thanks

Hi There In a warehouse with 20 people, how wide do the fire lanes need to be please? Also what is the rule at the bottom of stairs? i was told the depth and width on the floor is based on how wide the stairs are? Thanks Chris

Dear Sir or Madame, a fire alarm was activated at my place of work. We were evacuated via the normal daily access route that took us directly past the source of alarm initiation and not via the fire exits. I submitted a written concern to our safety officer since I was under the impression that in the event of such alarm, all personnel were to leave immediately via the nearest available fire exit. I was assured that the situation had been appraised, that there was no danger to staff and that the use of the longer normal access route (single corridor) instead of fire exits was permissible. I consider it impossible to safely appraise a fire situation from alarm initiation t…

Hi all, I'm new here, but any advice would be appreciated. I'm with a charity that provides canal boat trips to less able people. On the back of the boat there are steps down into the passenger cabin which can be removed in order to use a lift for those who can't manage the stairs. On our largest boat, we could take 35 passengers, including up to 6 in wheelchairs. There would normally be 3 crew and a handful of carers who would come with the group. Beside the lift, there are steps to waist high exits on both sides at the front. I'm looking at evacuation in case of a fire. It often takes about 15 minutes to board everyone using the lift where necessary…

We have wooden stairs leading to a mezzanine floor which also has a fixed escape ladder in a warehouse, there are metal goods in cardboard boxes on wooden pallets stored under the stairs and mezzanine floor, also loose plastic items, my concern is that flammable goods are stored under the stairs, is this okay and legal in this particular situation?

I work in the residential side of a boarding school. I've been told if a student on the first floor refuses to leave the building when the alarm goes off to use the stay put policy and remain with the child and the fire service will be directed to us first.....is this acceptable?

Dear sir/madam Could you please confirm if Fire Marshall certificates have a specific expiry date? After looking online, it seems different companies say different things. Some say 3 years and others say it's whenever employers feel their Marshall require further training. Also, are the certificates transferable between jobs like first aid certificates? Kind regards

What is the maximum distance the the person can run to reach the exit at any floor?

Hi We have our offices in a 3 storey building. We have 5 employees across our 2 adjacent offices. Should we appoint fire marshalls for such a small amount of people, especially as they work part time? Also, how often should the property management company do a fire drill & test the alarms? Thank for your help Debbi

Is it mandatory( ie Fire reg.) to sign the Care Home Visitors Book on entering and leaving? If not , how will Staff know if any visitors in closed rooms ?

I work as a Building Manager in residential property in North London, Part of my duties is to ensure the Fire Safety of the building. The building is 5 storey purpose build block of flats, consist of 90 individual studio flats. We also have a shared kitchen and laundry room on each floor. Each Floor is equipped with smoke and heat detectors, as well as with fire blankets and powder fire extinguishers. The building is fitted with a direct Fire Alarm System with no delay. All communal parts are equipped with adequate fire fighting equipment and fire routes and exit signs. we carry out a FRA every year. To my opinion as a landlord, we provide adequate Fire Safety the buildin…