As a business owner or manager of a property, one thing you must consider in regards to the safety of your staff or occupants, is how they would escape in the event of a fire. Ensuring a fire risk assessment and a compartmentation survey are carried out is an important step in maintaining the fire safety of a building. However, you must still create a fire evacuation plan. If you’d like to find out how to write a fire evacuation plan, continue reading our helpful guide.
What is a fire evacuation plan?
A fire emergency evacuation plan (FEEP) is a document that includes the action to be taken by all staff and building occupants in the event of a fire, and the arrangements for calling the fire brigade. The fire evacuation plan is designed to help aid occupants of a building in the event of a fire, helping them to evacuate the premises safely.
If a fire evacuation plan is clear and easy to understand, then building occupants should know their roles and the steps they must take in the event of a fireto remain safe and calm. A successful fire evacuation plan will lead everybody to safety and ensure the fire brigade is called to the location to deal with the blaze.
What’s included in a fire evacuation plan?
When compiling your building’s fire evacuation plan, you must include information on the following:
- A clear passageway to all escape routes
- Clearly marked escape routes that are as short and direct as possible
- Enough fire exits and routes for all people in the building to safely escape
- Emergency doors that open easily
- Emergency lighting where needed to help people navigate through smoke
- Training for all employees to know and use the escape routes
- A safe meeting point for staff
How to write a fire evacuation plan
There are many steps to creating a successful and clear fire evacuation plan, and they are:
- Imagine various scenarios
- Establish roles and responsibilities
- Evaluate escape routes and exits
- Create a communication plan
- Inspect equipment
- Rehearse fire evacuation plan
- Feedback and amends
Imagine various scenarios
When planning your fire evacuation plan, consider the primary threats your building and occupants will face. Figure out the risks to safety and think about certain scenarios.
Consider any and all situations. What if the fire is on the ground floor near the main exit? Is there a safe space far enough away from the building that staff can reach? How long does it take to get through fire escape routes to safety? What if the fire is situated in an escape route?
Try and think about any scenario that could occur so you can plan for it.
Establish roles and responsibilities
Next up is to establish roles and responsibilities for staff members. In the event of a fire, many people may panic. So you need a select group of people who have clearly defined roles to take control of the situation. Think about who should be the fire warden, the assistant fire warden, and whether you need any floor monitors to help navigate people to the correct escape routes.
Will the fire warden be the person responsible for calling the fire brigade, or will you have someone else do that? Having clearly defined roles makes it easier to manage an evacuation.
Evaluate escape routes and exits
Review the current setup of fire escape routes and exits to ensure they are safe and in working order. Do the current fire escape routes have lighting to help occupants navigate through smoke? Are they well lit and visible? Do the fire doors work as they should? If not, ensure you have fire door checks conducted.
Once everything has been checked, ensure the fire escape routes are clearly marked on your fire evacuation plan.
Create a communication plan
With roles clearly defined, ensure that a communication plan is put in place so the fire wardens and floor monitors can speak to each other throughout the evacuation. Clear communication ensures a smooth running of the fire evacuation plan.
Inspect equipment
Ensure that all fire equipment is in full working order. This includes fire extinguishers, fire alarms, walkie talkies for communicating between nominated fire wardens, and emergency lighting.
Failing to check that everything works as it should could cause major problems during an emergency. Any pieces of equipment that are faulty should be fixed immediately.
On the fire evacuation plan, there should be information on all equipment. This information should include details of how someone can use the fire alarm system and how they should use a fire extinguisher, if needed.
Rehearse fire evacuation plan
The penultimate step to writing a fire evacuation plan is rehearsing the current setup. After nominating fire wardens, checking fire doors and all equipment, you should have a couple of practice runs.
This allows you to put the building and occupants in a practical situation to test how effective your fire evacuation plan is. Take note of anything that didn’t work as it should, consider how easy it was for people to find and use escape routes and if they stood in the correct locations outside.
How well did you communicate with other fire wardens and how long did it take to locate the fire and contact the emergency services?
Feedback and amends
Now you’ve practiced and fixed any snags in the fire evacuation plan, you’re ready to write it up. Once everything is written up, ensure everybody in the building is aware of the process should a fire occur, who is in charge, and where they should go.
Fire safety training at NW Fire Solutions
If you have set up a fire evacuation plan, and would like to double down on safety procedures within your building, you could always train your staff.
NW Fire Solutions offers three types of on-site fire safety training courses:
- Basic fire awareness training
- Fire marshal training
- Fire extinguisher training
Our courses will help you to remain fully compliant with your employer obligations under the terms of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Since we travel to your place of business, we ensure minimum workplace disruption while your staff undergo this important training on-site.
If you’d like to know more about the services we provide at NW Fire Solutions, including fire strategy reports, don’t hesitate to contact us on 0151 665 0124 today.