The LWF Blog
Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Effective Evacuation – Part 289
February 3, 2025 12:08 pmLawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 288, LWF discussed the role of the staff in charge in a fire situation. In part 289, we look at how people continue to use familiar escape routes instead of travelling by the most appropriate alternative escape route in a building and how this information should impact design, fire drills and fire safety training for staff.
Staff fire safety training should emphasize the need for staff and any other building occupant to use all designated fire exits as appropriate, to minimise the time taken to evacuate the building and to help reduce the likelihood of people being exposed to fire before they reach a place of relative safety.
During a fire drill, a good way to familiarise staff with a realistic fire scenario is to block off the main egress route (the route they would normally use to enter and exit the building) to ensure they use alternative escape routes. This type of drill also allows management to evaluate a likely evacuation time if one escape route is unavailable.
Where the doors for alternative exits are secured with panic bars, Redlam bolts etc. or if they are fitted with security alarm devices, checks should be undertaken after the drill to ensure that all security devices operated successfully and alarm signals were received from all alarmed doors.
Although it is common to see a building where the design was satisfied by the provision of a main stairway (which has sufficient capacity for the building occupants) and that there are alternative staircases and exits which were excluded from everyday use with alarms and security devices, it is not ideal. An ideal scenario for a building design would incorporate alternative exits and stairways into the general circulation of the building to ensure best practice when it comes to familiarity and usage in a fire situation.
In part 290 of this series, LWF will begin to discuss the effective management of fire safety. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.
Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 35 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.
While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information