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Fire

Health & Safety Consultancy, Information & Management

Emergency Evacuation Instruction and Training

If you are an employer or in control of premises, your staff and the employers of other people working in your control should be given information and instruction as soon as possible after they are appointed and regularly after that. This will include:

Emergency evacuation procedures
Risks identified by the fire risk assessment
Preventive and protective measures
Nominated and responsible personnel

Don’t forget staff working outside normal working hours, such as contractors, cleaners or maintenance staff will also need to be informed.

The information and instruction you provide must be in easily understandable forms and be availabled for those with mobility impairments, medical conditions, learning difficulties and those who do not use English as their first language.

Training is required

If a staff member is appointed as a Duty Manager
When new staff start employment
When changes have been made to an organisations emergency arrangements
Where working practices, processes or people’s responsibilities change
With any new or changed risks to the safety of staff, members of the public, visitors etc
To ensure that staff know how to react in emergency situation
Where staff assist disabled or vulnerable persons to places of safety

Training is required to be repeated as often as necessary (annually, or more often depending on the nature of your organisation) and should take place during working hours.

Whatever training you decide is necessary to support your fire safety strategy and emergency plan, it should be documented.

The enforcing authority may want to examine records as evidence that adequate training has been given.

Fire Safety Training

You must provide adequate fire safety training for your staff. The type of training should be based on the particular features and nature of your premises and your emergency plan.

In small premises this may be no more than showing new staff the fire exits and giving basic training on what to do if there is a fire.

In larger organisations the fire safety training will need to be planned. Your staff training should include the following:

What to do on discovering a fire
How to raise the alarm
Wat to do upon hearing the fire alarm

Fire Awareness Training

Fire Drills - When to use an Extinguisher - Roll-call or Fire Marshals?

Contact Sussexsafety.net to arrange bespoke Fire Awareness Taining to suit your organisation's requrements.

To Fire Awareness Training

Procedures for alerting members of the public and visitors including, where appropriate, directing them to exits
Arrangements for calling the fire and rescue service
Location and when appropriate, the use of fire fighting equipment
Location of escape routes, especially those not in regular use
How to open all emergency exit doors
Evacuation procedures for everyone in your organisation to be abe to reach an assembly point at a place of total safety
Importance of keeping fire doors closed to prevent the spread of fire & smoke
Where appropriate, how to stop machines and processes and isolate power supplies in the event of a fire
The reason for not using the lifts - where applicable
Safe use of and risks from storing or working with highly flammable and explosive substances
The importance of general fire safety, which includes good housekeeping
The importance of fire doors smoke detection and other basic fire-prevention measures

All the staff identified in your emergency plan that have a supervisory role if there is a fire (e.g. heads of department, fire marshals or wardens and, in larger offices and shops, fire parties or teams), should be given details of your fire risk assessment and receive additional training

Fire Marshals / Fire Wardens

Staff expected to undertake the role of fire marshals (often called fire wardens) will require more comprehensive training. Their role may include:

Helping those on the premises to leave
Checking the premises to ensure everyone has left
Using fire fighting equipment if safe to do so
Liaising with the fire and rescue service on arrival
Shutting down vital or dangerous equipment
Performing a supervisory/managing role in any fire situation

Detailed knowledge of the fire safety strategy of the premises
Awareness of human behaviour in fires
How to encourage others to use the most appropriate escape routes
How to search safely and recognise areas that are unsafe to enter
Knowledge of Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPS)
Additional training for the evacuation of the mobility impired - evac chairs
An understanding of the purpose of any fixed fire fighting equipment such as sprinklers or gas flooding systems
Reporting of faults, incidents and near misses

Training for this role may also include:

Fire Drills

Once your emergency plan has been developed and training given, you will need to evaluate its effectiveness.

The best way to do this is to perform a fire drill. This should be carried out at least annually or as determined by your fire risk assessment.

If you have a high staff turnover, or are responsible for vulnerable people, you may need to carry them out more often.

Regular fire drills can help identify any weaknesses in your emergency procedures and provide information that can be used in the event of a real fire evacuation. Fire drills are useful tools for:

Identifying any weaknesses in the emergency evacuation strategy
Testing the procedure following any recent alteration or changes to working practices
Familiarising new members of staff with procedures
Checking all staff, visitors & members of public are evacuated safely to the assembly points
Ensuring those with mobility impairments can be evacuated safely
Identifying that fire warning and protection equipment is working
Measuring the total time taken to evacuate the building safely

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