Assembly points/ muster points

[Guest Joe]

Hi I am just wondering if you need assembly point signs for residential buildings operating a stay put evacuation procedure.

I am having conflicting messages, Some say if it’s stay put you don’t need an assembly point, some say no for low rise and medium rise. Only high rise.
Some say if the fire service decide you need to evacuate that people need to know where to congregate. Particularly if EVAC alert systems are in place.
But also stay put is not mandatory so people may decide to evacuate and need somewhere to gather.

Any advice and also where is this stipulated.

[Mike North]

 If there is a stay put policy, how do you get to the assembly point?

If it’s a residential building, how are you going to take a roll call when you don’t know who the occupants are, if they are on holiday, have they visitors or have gone out. 

The fire brigade will have to do a sweep of the building to ensure that it is empty.

[AnthonyB]

Also if the fire service decide you need to evacuate they will tell you where to assemble, which could be any number of places as evacuation of a stay out block would be the result of a dynamic risk assessment and your location could be affected by the nature of the building failure, fire and weather conditions, layout & distribution of emergency vehicles and operations, etc