Evacuation Plan

Fire evacuation maps are simplified building schematics that guide viewers away
from an imminent threat or hazardous area. Typically, these maps show building
features such as rooms, doors, exits, hallways, stairwells, and more. Evacuation maps
will also show a ‘You Are Here’ location and safe egress routes. Additional information
such as the location of safety equipment may be included when appropriate. Current,
compliant fire evacuation maps keep employees, customers, and visitors safe. Not only
do they give clear direction in the event of a fire, but they may be used during fire drills
to confirm everyone is following the safest egress routes. If your evacuation maps are
not safe and accurate, now is the time to review and update your evacuation maps.
True fire safety is a direct result of planning.

While fire evacuation maps are sometimes required to

meet building codes, they are always prudent. Outdated or
inaccurate maps are dangerous and a liability to your
business or organization. These maps also make a good
training tool and may be a place to display severe weather
instructions, industrial hazard evacuation, security
information, AED, and first aid locations. Evacuation maps
are more than just an illustration or code requirement. They
are imperative to the continued safety of everyone who enters a building.

Evacuation maps must be simple and easy to understand. Specific features will
vary depending on the building and the environment. Common features of a fire
evacuation map include:

 Primary and Secondary Egress Routes

 Building Exits
 You Are Here Location
 Fire Pull Locations
 Fire Extinguisher Locations
 Clear Map Legend
  AED Locations

Every map we create is specifically designed based on building layout, building

usage, occupancy time, fire codes, and industry best practices. Our team has the
training, experience, and staffing to create and maintain accurate and legible fire
evacuation maps. We’ve worked with large and complex businesses across the U.S.
and have created thousands of safe, compliant maps. (https://www.building-
maps.com/fire-evacuation-maps/)

Inspection and Maintenance System

Early warning plays a key role in a health care facility’s ability to safely evacuate
its residents during a fire emergency. As a result, a lot is riding on your fire alarm
system’s ability to operate and function properly. So much so, in fact, that state law
prohibits the occupancy of any portion of a building until the required fire alarm and
detection system has been tested and approved. Fire alarm systems are expected to
help protect people, property, and assets. But you can’t tell if they’re fully operational
just by looking at them. As with any other system, electronics and other components
can degrade over time and compromise the system’s operation. Dust, dirt, and other
contaminants can cause problems with smoke detectors. Such things as vandalism,
remodeling, and improper maintenance procedures can also damage fire protection
equipment. The good news is that with proper testing, inspection, and maintenance you
can keep your fire alarm system at optimum operating performance. In addition to
ensuring protection, keeping your system in good condition reduces expenses by
preventing unbudgeted emergency repairs and costly false alarms.

Knowing the system’s age and maintenance history helps you determine the
steps you must take to maintain its operational readiness. Systems under five years old
should require little effort to maintain. In systems so young, problems are usually due to
marginal installation like improper grounding or environmental factors like voltage
transients. Periodic system testing and inspection by qualified specialists can detect
many such problems.
Systems between five and ten years old may experience component breakdown caused
by harsh, but normal, environmental factors. Voltage fluctuations, temperature, and
humidity may cause system failure or nuisance alarm problems.

Systems between ten and fifteen years old can still provide appropriate life-safety
response. However, systems in this category need close attention, even with proper
maintenance procedures in place. If the system has had a history of poor maintenance
or none at all, it’s likely that failure of components and improper monitoring of system
components will occur.

Systems approaching 20 years of age may be beyond their technological life

expectancy. The system may continue to work satisfactorily if properly maintained, but
you need testing and inspection by trained specialists to ensure proper system
response will occur in an emergency.

The steps. The maintenance activities for fire alarm systems can be summed up in five
steps.

1. Test and calibrate alarm sensors, such as flame and smoke detectors, per
manufacturer specifications. This requires knowing about the different sensors—
and their testing requirements, failure modes, and re-installation requirements.
2. Simulate inputs and test the annunciators. This requires specific knowledge of
the system under test.
3. Set sensitivity. This requires an understanding of the particular system, the
specific application, and fire detection theory.
4. Coordinate with fire department to test the input to their system.
5. Check the battery for corrosion and expiration date, then take appropriate action,
if necessary.

These steps seem simple enough, provided you have the knowledge. However,
that knowledge is useless if you don’t pay absolute attention to detail. Experience
shows that maintenance technicians under pressure to keep production equipment
running often overlook important details because “nothing is broken.”
 In virtually all cases, the standards outline minimum requirements. The potential
problem, however, is that not all fire alarm systems are subject to the same
environmental and ambient conditions. Therefore, meeting minimum standards of all
applicable codes and standards may not provide the optimum protection for a facility.
Because of this, manufacturers’ service organizations may recommend inspections and
maintenance that exceed published standards and guidelines.

In addition to system age, you must consider budget and staffing resources.
Does your staff have the time and expertise to properly maintain this critical life-safety
system? Will it be more cost-effective to have the manufacturer’s service organization or
a contractor specializing in fire alarms perform the maintenance? The most stringent
standards and guidelines are meaningless unless the people performing the inspection,
testing, and maintenance are knowledgeable and qualified to service the fire alarm
system.

Facility maintenance people usually don’t possess the experience and

knowledge found in manufacturer’s service technicians, whose daily work revolves
around fire alarm system technology in a variety of environments and circumstances.
Some facilities have answered this problem by sending their people to factory-
sponsored training courses. This approach works, if done on an ongoing basis.

You can get around the training dilemma by using a factory service agreement.
These can range from a basic on-call agreement to regularly scheduled service visits.
Emergency service offering four-hour and eight-hour response times, on a 24-hr-a-day
basis, is an option available in most service agreements. This service usually provides
response within the specified time, along with repair and replacement of equipment.
Rapid emergency response is almost universal for the healthcare and lodging industries
because of around-the-clock occupancy by staff, patients, and guests.

For most facilities, contracting out that function makes sense. Before you sign a
maintenance agreement, though, ensure technicians are certified by the National
Institute for the Certification of Engineering Technologies (NICET) and specialize in life
safety. NICET certification indicates thorough knowledge of system installation and life
cycle inspection, testing, and maintenance protocols. Some facilities have their own
staff NICET certified.

The best-designed fire alarm system can be rendered ineffective, if improperly

maintained. Each month, NFPA members read about fire catastrophes that a well-
maintained system would have prevented. They also read about fires where properly
functioning systems saved lives and reduced the business interruption. When you’re
pinched by budgets, it’s tempting to take the risk that a fire won’t happen and delay
responsible decisions about your fire protection until the next quarter. However, courts
have increasingly ruled against people who have made such decisions, and held them
—and their managers—personally and criminally liable. You must ensure your fire
protection system operates properly, even if that means dipping into other budgets. (
https://www.ecmweb.com/content/article/20891805/fire-alarm-system-testing-
inspection-and-maintenance)

Hot Work Permit System

Hot work can create significant hazards that put workers, those around them, and the
premises itself in danger. In particular, it can pose a major fire risk. A stray spark from
certain hot work, such as welding or soldering, can easily ignite combustible materials
and cause serious harm to the building and people involved.

Therefore, your workplace must establish a suitably-tailored safe working system for hot
work before people carry it out. More specifically, it will need to prepare a permit to
work.

To create a permit for hot work, you must understand the risks that it poses and what
control measures are necessary for mitigating these risks. This is crucial, as the safety
precautions for hot work require consistent application and proper training. A permit for
hot work ensures that everyone fully understands their responsibilities and that the work
does not proceed without proper authorization and safe systems in place.
Hot work refers to any work that requires using open flames, applying heat or friction, or
may generate sparks or heat. More specifically, it is defined by the British Standards
Institution (BSI) in BS 9999 as “any procedure that might involve or have the potential to
generate sufficient heat, sparks or flame to cause a fire. Hot work includes welding,
flame cutting, soldering, brazing, grinding and the use of other equipment incorporating
a flame, e.g. tar boilers, etc.” (Definition taken from BS 9999: Code of practice for fire
safety in the design, management and use of buildings.)

Common types of hot work include:

 Welding, brazing, and soldering.

 Grinding and cutting.
 Thawing pipes.
 The use of open flames, blow-lamps, and torches.
 Using bitumen and tar boilers.
 The use of hot air blowers and lead heaters.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does include the most common examples
of hot work and those that can pose significant risks without proper safety
precautions.

A variety of industries may require hot work in their premises as part of routine work
activities, though it is also frequently carried out as part of contractual work. However,
no matter who carries it out, they must know what kind of hazards hot work presents
and how to prevent them from causing harm.

Fire hazards posed by hot work include:

 Flying sparks. This is the main risk posed by hot work. Sparks can easily get
trapped in cracks, pipes, gaps, holes, and other small openings, where it will
potentially smolder and start a fire.
 Flammable swarf, molten metals, slag, cinder, and filings. The debris and
residue that hot work creates are often highly combustible and/or hot.
  Heat conduction when working on pipes. Hot work can cause a pipe to
heat up substantially and this heat can easily transfer through the process of
conduction to another, potentially flammable surface and cause a fire.
 Hot surfaces. If you don’t properly remove flammable materials or
substances from the area before work, they could come into contact with a
surface that has become hot during the work and easily start a fire.
 Explosive atmospheres. In certain environments, there may be vapor or
gases in the air that are highly combustible and could ignite when exposed to
hot work. Similarly, the hot work could generate fumes that create an
explosive atmosphere.

The consequences of these hazards can be severe and costly for any
business. Injuries can result in workers taking time off work, while a serious fire
could damage the building irreparably. Both of these could even lead to legal
consequences under certain circumstances. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand
how to implement appropriate safety controls.

Appropriate supervision of hot work is beneficial for monitoring safe working

practices, but is primarily necessary for checking the environment afterwards. A fire
watch must remain within the area for at least an hour after the work finishes to ensure
a fire doesn’t start. This is crucial, as it’s difficult to see a spark that has gone down a
hole until it starts smoldering.

A fire watch can be anyone who is responsible and aware of the risks, such as a
supervisor or someone who was involved in the work. They must have received fire
extinguisher training and should monitor the main area where the work occurred, as well
as any adjacent rooms and the floors immediately below and above it. Doing so ensures
they’re prepared to immediately suppress any smoldering or fires and prevent an
emergency. (https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/what-is-hot-work/)
Fire Safety Training

Fires destroy property, cause injuries, and take lives. A fire in the workplace can
also mean the termination of jobs, as many of the offices and factories destroyed by fire
in Canada are never rebuilt. One of the key strategies to maintaining a safe workplace
and preventing fires is fire safety training. With proper training workers can eliminate fire
hazards and respond quickly and efficiently if a fire breaks out. Without proper training a
small occurrence can quickly grow to become a major incident with devastating
outcomes. Everyone is at risk if there is a fire. However, there are some workers who
may be at greater risk because of when or where they work, or because they’re not
familiar with the premises or the equipment at the work site. Fire safety training can
teach workers how to recognize fire hazards, conduct a fire safety risk assessment,
prevent a workplace fire, and respond if a fire occurs. Fire safety training begins by
identifying the basic properties of fire. All fires start when heat (a source of ignition)
comes into contact with fuel (anything that burns) and oxygen is present. To prevent a
fire the goal is to keep sources of ignition and fuel apart.

Fire Principles

The complex interrelationships between fire and mankind transcend

international borders and disciplinary boundaries. The science of fire knows no
geographical or political limits. Over time we have learned fundamental fire safety
principles for preventing fire events and managing their impact (i.e. the Common
Principles: Prevention, Detection and Communication, Occupant Protection,
Containment and Extinguishment) that can be consistently applied
internationally. It is tragedy that has often compelled legislative changes – to
continue in such a way is an abnegation of responsibility of first magnitude.
(https://ifss-coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IFSS-CP-1st-edition.pdf)

 Prevention
 Detection and Communication
 Occupant Protection
 Containment an Extinguishment
Use of Portable Fire Extinguishers and Other Equipment

A good way to remember how fires work is to imagine a triangle with four
elements—one on each side of the triangle, and one at its center. The three
elements along the sides of the triangle are heat, oxygen and fuel. In the middle, the
last element is a chemical reaction, which must occur between those first three
elements. If you can remove even one of these four elements, you can put out a fire.
This is the principal around which all fire protection is based.

Know your fire classes There are five types of fires, and knowing about
each will help you fight a fire correctly:

 Class A: Ordinary combustibles (such as paper, cloth, wood or plastic)

 Class B: Flammable liquids (such as paint, petroleum oil, propane, butane
or gasoline)
 Class C: Energized electrical equipment (such as kitchen appliances,
transformers or motors)
 Class D: Combustible metals (such as magnesium, sodium, potassium or
aluminum)
 Class K: Cooking oils (such as vegetable fats, animal fats, greases or
other cooking oils)

You can sometimes use the same fire extinguishing agent on several
different fire classes, but be sure to read the warnings and consult a
knowledgeable fire safety professional first. In some cases, using one type of
extinguisher on the wrong class of fire could actually help the fire spread and
become more powerful.

Know your fire extinguisher types

There are eight important types of fire extinguishers. Familiarize

yourself with them, and schedule fire extinguisher service in
Lawrenceville, GA to make sure any that you use are in working order at
all times:
  Water and foam: Remove the heat element from the equation. For
use in Class A fires.
 Dry chemical: Used for Class A, B and C fires, dry chemical
extinguishers help interrupt the chemical reaction.
 Wet chemical: This is a newer extinguisher which works by
removing heat and preventing re-ignition through a barrier it creates
between fuel and oxygen. Primarily for use with Class K fires to
help extinguish fats and oils.
 Carbon dioxide: Removes oxygen and works with Class B and C
fires. Generally ineffective for fighting Class A fires.
 Cartridge operated dry chemical: Extinguishes fire by preventing
further chemical reaction. For use with Class A, B and C fires.
Water mist: A newer extinguisher, it removes heat, and works with
Class A and C fires.
 Dry powder: Separates oxygen and fuel and removes heat. Only
effective for Class D fires.
 Clean agent: Includes halocarbon and halon agents to interrupt
chemical reactions. For use in Class B and C fires, but can
sometimes be used for class A as well.

How to Use a Fire Extinguisher

It is important to know the locations and the types of extinguishers in your

workplace prior to actually using one. Fire extinguishers can be heavy, so it’s a
good idea to practice picking up and holding an extinguisher to get an idea of the
weight and feel. Take time to read the operating instructions and warnings found
on the fire extinguisher label. Not all fire extinguishers look alike. Practice
releasing the discharge hose or horn and aiming it at the base of an imagined
fire. Do not pull the pin or squeeze the lever. This will break the extinguisher seal
and cause it to lose pressure.

When it is time to use the extinguisher on a fire, just remember PASS!

 P-ull the pin.

A-im the nozzle or hose at the base of the fire from the recommended
safe distance.

S-queeze the operating lever to discharge the fire extinguishing agent.

S-weep the nozzle or hose from side to side until the fire is out starting at
the recommended distance.

https://femalifesafety.org/fire-equipment/portable-fire-extinguishers/

https://aaafirepro.com/2017/11/types-and-uses-of-portable-fire-extinguishers/

Conduct of Drills

A fire drill is a simulated emergency procedure which aims to emulate the

processes which would be undertaken in the event of a fire or other similar emergency.
It involves creating a situation which replicates what would happen if a real fire were to
occur, usually with the inclusion of fire alarms, and requires your employees, and
anyone else who may be within your property at the time, to evacuate.

Intended to make an evacuation in the event of a fire as simple, efficient and

effective as possible, it involves running your employees through your evacuation
procedures, ensuring they are familiar with the plan and are able to get out quickly and
safely. It is also intended to make sure your relevant fire warden or fire safety supervisor
knows exactly what they are doing and can act as incredibly beneficial practice if their
expertise is ever really needed.

Fire drills are also an important evaluation of your evacuation procedures. An

ideal opportunity to test how effective your emergency plans are, they allow you to
quickly identify any flaws or weaknesses which may be present and then make any
changes as a result. For example, if some of your staff gather their belongings before
leaving, you can ensure everyone is aware that action is against all fire safety
recommendations and that, in a real-life situation, they may be putting their lives in
danger. Similarly, if you find one of your exits is blocked, or too narrow for your
employees to quickly escape, you should plan an alternative or additional route.

How do you conduct a fire drill effectively?

In essence, a fire drill is a relatively simple procedure. However, there are

various things you can do before, during, and after the drill takes place to make
sure it is as effective and as useful as it possibly can be… Before carrying out
the drill it is often useful to:

 Inform all employees of that a fire drill is going to happen, providing

them with specific details and also firmly letting them know their
participation is required.
 If you work in large premises, or multi-location premises, nominate
observers to assess the fire drill, paying attention to the
appropriateness of actions, the behaviour of employees and any
problems which may arise during the drill.
 Additionally, if there are likely to be any visitors present at the
time of the fire drill you should also pre-warn them.

Throughout the drill:

 Keep an eye out for any inappropriate behavior, such as stopping

to collect coats, bags and other personal belongings.
 Closely observe any difficulties experienced by people with
disabilities, such as an inability to get out of an exit or get down
stairs easily.
 Make sure employees are using the nearest fire escape route,
rather than just the exit they are most familiar with.
 Pay attention to any difficulties experienced as a result of the
chosen escape routes, such as doors being difficult to open or
exits being blocked.
  Listen closely to the roll call taken once the evacuation has been
completed, making sure everyone is present and accounted for
and checking for any issues which may arise.
After the drill:

 Thoroughly and comprehensively logs all details of the fire drill,

including how the evacuation procedure went and any
inappropriate actions or problems which were noted as a result.
 Any significant findings of the drill should be recorded within the
Fire Risk Assessment and reviewed regularly as part of your
workplace fire safety.
 Remedial action deemed necessary, such as the installation of
additional fire safety signs or fire alarms, should be undertaken by
a professional, reputable fire safety company.
(https://www.elitefire.co.uk/help-advice/guide-effective-workplace-fire-drills/)

Emergency Response Team (ERT)

At every location, managers and supervisors should organize an emergency

response team (ERT) and provide training. Prompt response by the ERT can save lives,
minimize property damage, and prevent interruptions to critical business functions. One
individual should be designated as the person in charge or incident commander and
have a designated backup. He or she should be given the responsibility and authority to
take appropriate action during an emergency.

The ERT members carry out specific responsibilities before, during, and after an
emergency and should be trained and prepared for the disasters or emergencies that
are most likely to occur. They should be assigned to the following positions, if
applicable:

 ERT leader.
 Floor or area searchers should be familiar with all primary and alternate
exits, as well as any alarm systems for the building. They conduct a
search of all restrooms and other designated areas, informing the building
 occupants and visitors that an emergency exists. They help locate and
evacuate people with disabilities. They also perform other duties assigned
by the ERT leader.
 Notifier contacts local fire department.
 Maintenance personnel, such as plumbers, mechanics, electricians, and
so forth, assist with any repairs.
 First-aid and triage team.
 Salvage squad helps protect or recover furnishings and equipment from
further damage.
 Security.
 Sprinkler control-valve operator (if the location is equipped with a fire
suppression system).
 Fire pump operator (if the location is equipped with an auxiliary fire
pump).

The size and organization of an ERT will depend on the needs at each location.
At all times, regular and alternate members who are assigned and trained for each
position on the ERT should be present. Emergency response procedures should be
discussed regularly in employee meetings.

(https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/safety-health-and-
environmental-manual/03/3-2-emergency-response-team?lang=eng)