3 Floor Program???

[metro mom]

I work in a 5 story building.  Last week the smoke alarm on the 2nd floor went off along with the 1st and 3rd floors.  When I asked management why the 4th and 5th floors were not notified at the time, they said that the city has adopted the 3 Floor Program.  They said that with this program only the adjacent floors right above and right below will be notified of smoke or fire.  Does anyone here know of this program and know of where I can find more information?  Thanks in advance.

~Michelle

[Chris Houston]

What country did this happen in?

[metro mom]

I'm in Houston, TX.

[CivvyFSO]

Seems like phased evacuation. Would be fairly standard practice in such a building.

In larger buildings this is a valid strategy to avoid everyone coming down the staircases at the same time and to avoid unecessary full evacuations. There should possibly be some sort of 'alert' (normally an intermittent alarm) on the upper floors to let people know there is an alarm situation so they can prepare for their own evacuation if needed.

What should hopefully happen is that if the alarm panel is not reset within a certain amount of time then other floors will get notified of a fire situation and would evacuate. There are a few different takes on the strategy, but as far as I am aware the upper floors should be made aware of a potential problem. (This would help with the possible early evacuation of disabled people.)

edit... This would be fairly standard in the uk...

[Chris Houston]

What country did this happen in?

I'm in Houston, TX.

[metro mom]

I spoke with management again and we would only be notified if the alarm on our floor goes off.  This just does not make sense to me.  If there is an emergency situation in my building I would like to know about it.  Especially if it is a fire.  Just recently there was a building fire here in Houston where 3 people died in the upper floors.  Our office is on the 3rd floor so I guess that gives us a little advantage, but it just doesn't seem right.

[Ken Taylor]

Most of us here on this Forum are in the UK, Metro and tend to expect the type of arrangement in phased evacuation as described by Civvy (ie sounders to instruct evacuation to those at more immediate risk and standby notification to other floors or parts of the premises to change to evacuation tone if necessary. The opinion of your local fire service for the building in question would be worth hearing in addition to that of building management.

[wee brian]

The approach to stair sizing in the states is completely different to the UK. Most buildings are designed to accomodate evacuation of only one floor at a time.

This even applies where phased evacuation is not adopted!

[afterburner]

Metro said: -"I work in a 5 story building.  Last week the smoke alarm on the 2nd floor went off along with the 1st and 3rd floors.  When I asked management why the 4th and 5th floors were not notified at the time, they said that the city has adopted the 3 Floor Program."
I think that in the United States The ground floor is referred to as the first floor, what we in the UK would call the first floor is, in the US called the second floor etc. Therefore If I have this correctly applied Metro's tale would be " I work in a 5 storey building.  Last week the smoke alarm on the 1st floor went off along with the Ground and Second floors.  When I asked management why the 3rd and 4th floors were not notified at the time, they said that the city has adopted the 3 Floor Program."
was this 3 floor programme not created for the evacuation of very high buildings to get the people most at risk on their way before a general alarm created a larger flow of people down the stairs. Was there not a sort sequence phase within the Twin Towers? Certain floors evacuated immediately with staged responses from others?
Local fire department Fire Marshals would be best reference point for deciding whether this is compliant or not