ah, that was anohter thing, the meeting point is at the back of the building (so you walk round from the front) and end up 5m from the building, up against a fence so you can't get further away
had a fire drill at work the other day. worst organised thing ever really.
its a 3 floor building, bottom floor, at ground level, has 3 fire exits. one at the front door in the middle of the building, and one at each end of
the building.
the 1st and 2nd (or 2nd and 3rd?) floors only have one fire exit, which is down the stairs to the one at the front door at the middle of the
building.
i'm pretty sure this isn't right. if there happens to be a fire at the bottom of the stairs, 2/3 of the building are pretty screwed.
also, we recently had a girl in a wheelchair start there. she has an electric wheelchair, so is very heavy. the same time as she started, some
evacuation chairs, like these were put on the walls at the top of the
stairs, with little signs stuck on saying "Do Not Use" then in small letters at the bottom, "no one has been trained in using
them"
this girl has been working on the middle floor, so surely in the even of a real fire, there's going to be problems (obviously common sense
prevails, and the chairs will be used, training or no training, but thats not really the point)
is this very illegal? it doesn't seem right to me
a fire risk assessment should be carried out by law. The disabled lady and any others with mobility / sensory imparments should be catered for in this assessment . Generally a buddy system is adopted so some one take on a role of responsibility fos the disabled. General rule is they are the last to leave to reduce congestion and ensure the evacuation isnt impeded. Your points should be raised somewhere in the evacuation report to highlight potential risks and allow controls to be put in place
Reminds me of "The Office" episode when they left the disabled girl on the stairs as it was too much hassle...
This falls under two categories.
Fire Reform, and DDA (Disability Discrimination Act). Both pretty serious.
The fire risk assessment should identify a means of escape for wheelchair users, even if this is a refuge area in a pressurised stairwell, where they
should wait for the fire brigade or colleagues to lift them out.
The new Fire Reform specifies requirements for refuge areas, as well as reviewed signage and training requirements. If you have a building /
facilities manager in your building, then they should know all about this. If they dont, then you need to escalate it, IMO.
I was trained as a fire marshal by a previous company, but i'm not legally qualified to answer.
I think you must have more than one exit & the exits must have the ability to evacuate the staff. So 10,000 people going through a single or two
single doors is not allowed.
If you want a bit of advice, phone your local fire brigade. They'll soon be round to do a check and make sure everything is ok if what you tell
them isn't allowed.
In my previous place, we had two floors, upper floors had the front main exit, exit to another building + two rear exits (which where notionally
dedicated to them). The ground floor staff had the front exit, exit to another building, two dedicated rear exits and the stairwells for the upper
floors. Disabled staff could either go down the stairs or go into another part of the building (we had physically separate buildings connected
together). Not sure if we had emergency wheelchairs).
cheers guys. yeah, the facilities manager guy is a bit of a knob. one girl mentioned to him the water coming out the cold water tap was actually hot
one day, but not hot enough to kill germs etc, and mentioned legionairs (sp?) he laughed at her, then she caught him slagging her off and bitching
about her to 2 people later that day (she actually heard the word legionairs, so wasn't paranoid)
the place has been there for over 10 years, so i can't beleive its illegal, but with no secondary escape routes, i can't see its legal
either. weird
Better to tell the fire brigade anonymously rather than him then.
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
cheers guys. yeah, the facilities manager guy is a bit of a knob. one girl mentioned to him the water coming out the cold water tap was actually hot one day, but not hot enough to kill germs etc, and mentioned legionairs (sp?) he laughed at her, then she caught him slagging her off and bitching about her to 2 people later that day (she actually heard the word legionairs, so wasn't paranoid)
the place has been there for over 10 years, so i can't beleive its illegal, but with no secondary escape routes, i can't see its legal either. weird
quote:
Originally posted by MakeEverything
I hate to say it, but ive found that most really bad FM's are usually former IT people.
You didn't hear it from me and you don't know who i work for!!
I am a trained Fire Marshal at my workplace. There are several issues that I have raised for the building that i work but 2 years now and still
nothing changed.
There are 3 exits in the building on the first floor. All of the fire exits takes you straight out to a busy car park so if you make it safely away
from the fire, you are in risk of being run over.
The disabled entrance is the rear fire exit. :O:O:O
The fire exit for the second floor is a chain ladder that you lower from a window. or if you can make it down the stairs you can use one of the exits
on ground floor.
lol a chain ladder?!
ah, that was anohter thing, the meeting point is at the back of the building (so you walk round from the front) and end up 5m from the building, up
against a fence so you can't get further away
Sounds like you need another "drill" with the aid of some petrol and a match... See how quickly improvements are made when they get sued
quote:
Originally posted by McLannahan
Reminds me of "The Office" episode when they left the disabled girl on the stairs as it was too much hassle...
Interesting, are you allowed to say what you do?
And no I don't mean "I'm in charge of printer ink"
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
lol a chain ladder?!
ah, that was anohter thing, the meeting point is at the back of the building (so you walk round from the front) and end up 5m from the building, up against a fence so you can't get further away
I would speak to the Fire Brigade directly.
As for 'works stories', we had a fire in our factory last year, the offices are joined to the factory. We all evacuated and the Fire Brigade
got it under control. After a while our works Fire Officer told us the office workers could go back inside.
Then the Fire Brigade shouted at us to get out as the building was still on fire !!!
Earlier this year we all had a lecture from the Fire Officer telling us how no one was to go back inside unless told its safe by the Fire brigade
because..... some people went back inside when they shouldn't have..... we were told this by HIM
the last and funniest of all is that i need to keep online registers of who is at the classroom during my sessions.
In case of a fire, you need to evacuate the building.
How do i know who i had in the class? Do i need to get my computer with me or is it as simple as keeping a paper based register?
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Interesting, are you allowed to say what you do?
And no I don't mean "I'm in charge of printer ink"