Why Is It Important to Have A Fire Evacuation Plan?

In the event of a fire, a carefully considered and well-rehearsed fire evacuation plan can make the difference between everyone in your building escaping unscathed or facing the devastating consequences of injury or worse still, fatalities.

If you are a business owner or manager, how many of the following questions do you feel confident answering yes to?

· Would you and your employees know what to do if they discovered a fire in your building?

· Does everyone in your building know what to do when the fire alarm goes off?

· Is everyone familiar with their nearest evacuation route?

· Do you have a floor plan on display showing clearly where these evacuation routes are?

· Do you have a named responsible person to plan for and deal with fire emergencies?

· Do you have named fire marshals or fire wardens in place to support evacuations?

· In the event of a fire, do you know where your nearest assembly point is? How safe is it?

· Is your fire fighting equipment well maintained and checked on a regular basis? Is it fit for purpose?

· Do you know how to help a person with a disability evacuate the premises?

· Have you got a procedure for evacuating visitors and making sure they are accounted for?

· Who else accesses your premises, eg, cleaners, security staff? Would they know what to do and who to contact in the event of a fire?

· Do you have a fire safety training plan in place?

· Does every new employee receive fire safety training as part of their induction?

It’s no use having a Fire Evacuation Plan if you only pay lip service to it. You MUST practice your fire evacuation drill regularly, so that in the awful event of a fire, everyone knows exactly what to do, how to evacuate the building safely and where to gather to make sure everyone is present and accounted for.

If any of these questions have caused you to question your fire safety procedure and evacuation plan then Ezra Safety Group is well placed to help you out. Our fire safety experts can help you by observing your fire drill, giving you advice on how to improve it and providing staff fire safety training. We can also carry out fire risk assessments, check your fire safety procedures, your fire fighting equipment and make sure everything is legal, above board but most importantly safe!

Get in touch if you would like us to visit your business premises to observe your fire evacuation plan in action and help you improve it.