Fire Announcements

[Tom Sutton]

May I ask your advice on Fire Announcements. Are they needed? How should they be presented?
Our situation is that we are a Church (The Salvation Army). We have Sunday meetings with about 200 regular people worshipping in a single session. We also have concerts by our own band & choir - at Christmas our Carol Services attract about 1,000 people from the local area over 3 services i.e. about 350 at each. We also hire the hall to third parties - local choirs, rotary etc who generally "put on" musical evenings.
We have during "concert" events as opposed to worship services made an announcement of the fire exits etc. & have recently transcribed this into a Power Point presentation that last for about 1 to 1.5 minutes. Is this really needed?
We are presently developing our Fire Safety Procedures, many of which are common sense - risk assessments, fire marshalls, etc. - & readily understandable but I cannot find any definitive advice re Fire Announcement procedures so any direct or indirect guidance would be appreciated.

I received the above query which was new to me, other than on aeroplanes, ships, fire safety symposiums and the FS college.

[Golden]

There is some guidance in the small & medium places of entertainment guide which seems most appropriate in this case however much of this depends on how many people are employed, the use of fire marshals, etc. and would need a FRA to support and underline the procedures. I'd think this would take about 20-30 seconds 'trolley dolly style' and there's no need for PowerPoint. Extract below.

At the start of the event or function you should
notify all those present about:
• the smoking policy;
• the emergency warning signal;
• who is supervising and how to identify them;
• location of exits and escape routes;
• taking only valuables immediately to hand but
not to go to collect other belongings;
• the location of muster points; and
• what will happen after that (e.g. re-entry to
the building).

[Owain]

There is some guidance in the small & medium places of entertainment guide which seems most appropriate in this case however much of this depends on how many people are employed, the use of fire marshals, etc. and would need a FRA to support and underline the procedures. I'd think this would take about 20-30 seconds 'trolley dolly style' and there's no need for PowerPoint. Extract below.

At the start of the event or function you should
notify all those present about:
• the smoking policy;
• the emergency warning signal;
• who is supervising and how to identify them;
• location of exits and escape routes;
• taking only valuables immediately to hand but
not to go to collect other belongings;
• the location of muster points; and
• what will happen after that (e.g. re-entry to
the building).

And, although not an emergency announcement (in the same way) where the toilets are

[John Webb]

There needs to be an agreed procedure between those playing and whoever is leading the service/concert as to how music will be stopped in the event of an emergency so that an appropriate announcement to leave the premises can be made. This should have been picked up in the Fire Risk Assessment. And indeed how the leader is informed in the first place by stewards or other participants!

[Tom Sutton]

Thanks everybody very useful guidance.