FIRE INFORMATION
FIRE DRILLS
Carrying out an Effective Fire Drill
Fire drills are essential in any workplace or public building for practicing what to do in the event of a fire. They are also a legal requirement under the Fire Safety Order of 2005 and all employees, students, contractors and visitors in the University are all required to participate. The effectiveness of the fire drills are coordinated and monitored by the University Health & Safety Officer /Fire.
Why have fire drills?
There are several reasons why fire drills are important; firstly fire drills are an opportunity to practice evacuation procedures to make sure everyone is familiar with them. They get people used to exiting a building quickly and therefore in a real life situation panic will be reduced, as everyone will know what they need to do. Fire drills are also useful for testing escape routes to evaluate their effectiveness.
During fire drills, checks can also be carried out on alarm systems to ensure they are working correctly and that emergency exits are unobstructed. Overall fire drills help improve safety, so that you will be best prepared if a real fire does occur.
How often should you have fire drills?
Ideally you should aim to have two fire drills a year at your premises, although this may vary depending on the risk assessment. It is sometimes necessary to carry out fire drills to include shift workers and appropriate arrangements are made to ensure all staff participate in at least one fire drill per year.
Should you inform staff before a fire drill?
There are arguments for and against making people aware of fire drills before they take place. Some people argue that not informing staff gives an element of surprise, so that people take drills more seriously. However this can also have the opposite effect in a real fire, as on hearing the alarm people may think that it is only a drill.
The advantage of informing all staff of fire drills beforehand is that firstly, they will not panic, which avoids potential injuries that could be caused in a rush to exit a building. Secondly if the alarm sounds without a prior warning, there will be no ambiguity as to if it is a drill or not and people will behave appropriately.
Preparing for a fire drill
When planning a fire drillsdifferent aspects are monitored. This could be a specific aspect of the building escape plan that may have been highlighted as needing improvement or a more general goal, such as reducing the amount of time it takes for everyone to exit the building.
Amongst the staff, a team of fire wardens have been be appointed to supervise fire drills and check that everyone gets out safely. All fire wardens have received special training so that they can carry out their duties safely and effectively. University Security Staff, who take control of any fire alarm incidents have also received special fire training to ensure that they can efficiently deal with any fire emergency.
During the fire drill
To monitor fire drills, observers are placed at points around the building in areas such as stairwells to look for good and bad practices. Any room for improvement is noted and then discussed at a debriefing meeting after the drill.
In buildings where there are more than one exit route, the main exits are sometimes blocked off to encourage staff to use alternative escape routes as in a real fire, parts of the building could be impassable due to fire or smoke.
A stopwatch to record how long the full evacuation takes to safely evacuate a building is recorded. Fire Wardens are designated specific ‘sweep zones’ to check that all areas are clear. Areas checked will include: toilets, offices, workshops, safe refuges, laboratories, store rooms, making sure that no one is trapped inside out before exiting themselves.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the fire drill
Debriefing takes place after the fire drill to look at the findings of the observers and evaluate the effectiveness of the evacuation procedures. Particular attention is made to those points that were highlighted for improvement in the initial planning. College / PSU Health & Safety Coordinators are also invited to share their ideas on how they think the drill could have been more effective.
Love them or hate them fire drills are an important part of fire safety and your workplace will be a safer place because of them.
RK Oct 2016