Where's the fire?

[SidM]

You are in an old secondary school with no AFD.  The fire alarm goes off.  The fire is in the waiting area by  main entrance.  One fire marshal wants to preclude all the children from all charging down to the main entrance.  Assuming the power's failed as well, how does he get the message out to the other marshals to stop children going out the only way they know.

[Phoenix]

1.  Radios - expensive, possibly unreliable after a few years, requires training and on-going expense, potentially unmanageable.

2.  Muster all marshall immediately on alarm actuation, agree a course of action and execute - probably insufficient time for that.

3.  Rely on the fact that people will turn round when faced with a large fire and ensure that all teachers know that they are responsible for leading the children in their care to the assembly point - simples.

Stu

[Mushy]

Training...training...an a bit more training

fire marshals and teachers, class room helpers and kids..at assembly, should be instructed in what to do in case of fire...that includes not leggin it when the fire alarm bell goes...they should leave under supervision...if they are out and about, say in the corridor area...they should go to the nearest classroom to be escorted out by staff

well thats my theory anyhow

[Big T]

Install an AFD in the area to provide early warning?

[AnthonyB]

Of course in some schools if the power failed the fire alarm would stop  sounding too causing more confusion!

Good management & training is required.

I assume the layout is such you can't have a separate final exit at the main entrance say within the protected main stair shaft?

My old school was 2 stage anyway so people wouldn't leg it out immediately allowing more time to plan (the real reason it was two stage was so malicious call point activations didn't top everyone out)

Children should all be in class under supervision of a teacher anyway to take them to the nearest exit, unless the million to one chance of it happening during class change (or more likely break), in which case teachers should be taught if first to discover the blocked route to go and marshal children to other routes