When does a duty of care end?

[Messy]

Do the requirements of fire legislation finish when the relevant person has left the premises and arrived at a place of safety (say, an assembly point)?

Consider a warehouse containing- say, flammable resins and adhesives in a fairly remote location with no commercial neighbours. The FRA and the emergency plan is S&S and everything is compliant. Routine fire drills  regularly come back with positive results

But consider this scenario:

The 45 staff evacuate to the assembly point at 03:00. There is some limited weather cover which is just as well as its cold and raining heavily. The fire is significant. The fire service make this a major incident and report to your management the incident is likely to go on for several hours

75% of your staff have arrived without coats. 25% of the staff are women who have left their handbags/coats and keys inside. Nobody will be able to retrieve their cars for at least 5 hours. Management on scene have no access to petty cash.

Firstly - are there any legal responsibilities for the management re duty of care in terms of keeping staff warm and getting them home?

Then how far does that duty of care go? Cabs home? Locksmiths to get those without keys into their homes? (& new locks if they become damaged?). Cabs back the next day to retrieve their cars and personal effects with overtime? and so on

Has anyone made such plans? and if so, do they fall under fire emergency plans or business continuity?

Any views or experiences would be welcome

[nearlythere]

Do the requirements of fire legislation finish when the relevant person has left the premises and arrived at a place of safety (say, an assembly point)?

Consider a warehouse containing- say, flammable resins and adhesives in a fairly remote location with no commercial neighbours. The FRA and the emergency plan is S&S and everything is compliant. Routine fire drills  regularly come back with positive results

But consider this scenario:

The 45 staff evacuate to the assembly point at 03:00. There is some limited weather cover which is just as well as its cold and raining heavily. The fire is significant. The fire service make this a major incident and report to your management the incident is likely to go on for several hours

75% of your staff have arrived without coats. 25% of the staff are women who have left their handbags/coats and keys inside. Nobody will be able to retrieve their cars for at least 5 hours. Management on scene have no access to petty cash.

Firstly - are there any legal responsibilities for the management re duty of care in terms of keeping staff warm and getting them home?

Then how far does that duty of care go? Cabs home? Locksmiths to get those without keys into their homes? (& new locks if they become damaged?). Cabs back the next day to retrieve their cars and personal effects with overtime? and so on

Has anyone made such plans? and if so, do they fall under fire emergency plans or business continuity?

Any views or experiences would be welcome

I would suspect no Messy. The RP is responsible for protecting them from a risk of harm from fire.
It may be that other H&S legislation may be relevant for your situation but any evac procedure I do would usually, with the agreement of the RP, make provision for vulnerable persons to be taken to some form of shelter.

[Chelsea]

This is very much an interesting scenario.

I should imagine all the RP would be 'required' to do is get them to safety and the assembly point but it would be courteous to ensure you can do as much as you can to support the staff, eg - find out information from the fire service, let them know the procedure, ensure people can get home or in contact with someone. The RP should lead the aftermath.

[wee brian]

I suppose, if your building was in the middle of nowhere and inaccesible etc. then you might need to think about it.

Swimming pools usually have a box of foil blankets to help protect people who may have escape in nothing but their speedos.

[kurnal]

It is important to remember that the UK Fire Safety Legislation is intended only to protect the safety of persons from the risk of fire. Factors such as health and welfare are covered under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations and specifically Regulation 8 which requires procedures to be put into place when necessary to deal with serious and imminenet danger to persons at work. Fire is one common emergency but there are many others, including some events caused by outside incidents, eg a large vehicle crashing into the premises.

[wee brian]

fair point

if they all die of exposure, it wont be the FSO that you get prosecuted under.

on the flipside - if its really nasty outside then they might be unwilling to evacuate unless you have hats and coats at the door.