The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Human Behaviour – Part 278

November 11, 2024 11:36 am

Lawrence 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 277, LWF considered what human response to fire alarms entails from the point of view of human behaviour in fire situations. In part 278, we give more detail about the processes that should be followed in order to ensure building occupants evacuate the building promptly when the fire alarm sounds.

There is no doubt that prompt evacuation once the fire alarm starts is the single most positive action building occupants can undertake. The fire procedures of an organisation must place considerable emphasis on this point. Real fire situations have shown that delays to evacuation, for whatever reason, have a major impact on the safety of people inside a building on fire.

Written procedures for staff (and visitors, as appropriate) should emphasise that it is not acceptable to finish existing activities prior to evacuation. However, as mainstream psychological experts have indicated, ‘Do nots’ are far less effective than ‘Do’s’. So instructions should ideally say ‘Stop whatever you are doing and evacuate immediately’ rather than ‘Do not finish your current activity before evacuating’.

The thorough training of staff is essential in regards to fire safety and fire procedures. In addition, the emphasis on immediate evacuation should be reiterated to staff on a regular basis.

In buildings where the public have access in any significant number, the staff should be trained to expect reluctance on the part of members of the public to evacuate if they are involved in other activities. Visitors to the building must be made aware of the nature of fire alarm signals, particularly if they are to be unaccompanied by staff at any time. The information can be provided verbally at reception or in the form of concise, clear written instructions handed to them at entry or printed on a visitor’s pass. Where visitors to the building may not speak English, it is helpful to have translations available to hand over and signage within the building should be clear and unambiguous.

In part 279 of this series, LWF will talk about weekly fire alarm testing and instructions to building occupants via the public address system. 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