Fire Marshalls

[Tom Sutton]

I receive this question recently and would be interested in your opinions.

“Do you have any information that might assist me in preparing a safe working procedure, recognising that the business in question employs roughly 1200 employees in a building that has two and free floors and four assembly points.

I haven't as yet been able to research is what is considered as good practice in an emergency situation with particular reference to the roles of Fire Marshals during a fire.

I have seen several web sites that would suggest that Fire Marshals are required to search floors to ensure the areas have been swept clean, yet in my view, this flies against good practice of protecting yourself by getting out of a building which is on fire.

I guess the sweeping of the areas is intended to counter against the need for a role call of employees which might be harder to administer.

If anything I have the view that a Fire Marshal should on hearing the fire alarm position him/herself at a strategic location on route to a recognised escape route and only coordinate the safe passage of persons safely towards the fire escape/s before then vacating themselves from the building.

I agree in principle with "if it is safe to do so" to ensure that the area is swept clear, although with the number of staff (1200) the company in question has been reluctant to introduce a role call, hence why the preferred method is to walk the areas.

My concern with this is that fire can spread at an alarming rate either by heat transfer/conductivity/fabrics of the building etc and therefore an area that was free from fire from the onset of the alarm may itself now become a danger zone as the minutes tick away and to encourage persons to check areas is the wrong choice, as those persons would be put at risk. I'm also not convinced that Fire Marshals can check all areas thoroughly within a reasonable time frame, which then questions if this to be true then why implement such a system?

In any question of fire, the responsibility is to ensure you get yourself to safety and the company needs to have a system in place to ensure it can account for everyone once vacated.

The sensible solution for Fire Marshals is to locate themselves at strategic locations in close proximity to fire escapes and ensure that everyone uses those escapes only and not some other route. They themselves would be the last to leave the building. The key is training of employees in knowing exactly what to do when the alarm bells ring and providing a PEEPS plan is in place there should be no excuse for anyone having ignored the warning. Responsibility is with everyone to ensure they get out of the building as soon as the alarm is raised. It should not be the responsibility of Fire Marshals to go looking for anyone who may have chosen to go to the toilet first or has decided to carry on with a phone-call etc. Although I do accept a method for acknowledging all employees once vacated has to be accounted for - the question is trying to find a working and a practical solution for this?”

[AnthonyB]

floorsweeping should be fine because (a) your buliding should have been fire risk assesed and thus mitigated against rapid fire spread & (b) you should have enough wardens to clear a building without undue delay. In buildings I drill that are properly managed the wardens are last to leave yes, but are only at the back of the streas of people from each floor, they are not in any longer than anyone else.

Roll call I find of little value except for key risks (e.g. people working in areas not viable for sweeping like contractors in out of way plant rooms) as normally it take so long the brigade would have been on site 5 minutes before the results came in!

[kurnal]

I would use fire wardens to sweep search manageable slices of the building. Time wise the use of fire wardens can reduce other peoples response times to the alarm so the end result is a much faster evacuaton of the building. As you have several assembly areas I would then nominate a fire marshall to each assembly point- to manage the assembly point and to carry out a roll call of the wardens., If the wardens hand in a search card or tally to the marshall and have radio comms so much the better. The fire marshalls then report to the premises fire officer who gathers the information, liases with the fire brigade and makes strategic decisions. Result fast response, great accountability, good liason with fire brigade.

If you want more detail please email me