The Scottish Government

Additional Fire Safety Measures for Employers

Military fire crews are trained and equipped to carry out basic fire-fighting and rescue operations. They will not have the same capability as your normal fire brigade and will be more widely dispersed. This section gives advice on additional measures that businesses and other organisations can put in place to prevent fire and limit damage during the present dispute.

Normal contingency planning is based on the presumption of early attendance by fully trained and equipped fire-fighting teams. This cannot be guaranteed for the duration of any action and accordingly there will be a consequent increase in the level of risk from fire. Organisations are urged to check their preparedness and to review contingency arrangements.

In premises regarded as presenting a high risk to life management should consider the need for additional staffing levels or patrols in order to enhance as necessary existing arrangements for fire prevention, the early detection of fires, evacuation of the occupants, and first aid fire fighting, particularly outside of normal working hours.

Employers and other persons having control of premises are already subject to a range of duties under fire safety and health and safety legislation. Consideration should be given to the additional steps that can be taken at this time to check, modify or enhance these arrangements. The following measures are suggested.

Ensure that business continuity and damage control plans are up to date:

• Effective plans will cover the maintenance and availability of a trained incident control team to manage the incident and detailed business recovery plans to ensure the continuity of key business services, information technology and communications (both internal and external) in the event of a major fire.

• Check that key staff can be contacted out of hours if necessary and that sufficient copies of the plan are held in readiness off site.

• Check that all contact details contained in the plan are current and correct.

• Special attention should be given to damage control and salvage arrangements in heritage buildings and those containing business critical processes, information or other resources.

Check the effectiveness of existing fire precautions:

• Ensure that fire exits are all unobstructed and available and that fire alarms and emergency lights are in good working order.

• Ensure that fire resisting doors and shutters are kept closed as far as practicable to limit the spread of fire and smoke.

• Check that appropriate fire fighting equipment is available, serviced and ready for use. Automatic suppression systems, e.g. sprinkler installations, should also be thoroughly checked to ensure that they are in proper working order.

• Staged evacuation arrangements involving progressive horizontal evacuation (in hospitals, residential and nursing homes for example) rely on early intervention by the fire service to contain fire at compartment boundaries. This containment cannot now be guaranteed and as a consequence more extensive evacuation may be required at an earlier stage. Management should consider the need for additional staff resources to allow for this.

Confirm staff are fully aware of fire and evacuation procedures:

• Check that staff know how to raise the alarm, call the emergency services, the location of escape routes and evacuation procedures. Remember cleaners, part time staff and those with mobility difficulties or other special needs who will require special assistance to evacuate safely.

• Check that senior officers, security personnel, fire wardens, incident control teams etc are aware of their duties in the event of fire.

• Arrangements should be made for an additional fire evacuation drill to be carried out at an early opportunity to practise the relevant emergency procedures.

Take appropriate steps to enhance staff vigilance:

• Increase the frequency of patrols or inspections to enforce the highest standards of housekeeping. In particular make sure staircases, other escape routes and high fire risk areas are kept free from any accumulation of waste or storage.

• To deter fire raising make sure that perimeter security is sound and that external storage including waste is kept well away from buildings.

• Particular attention should be paid to the control of activities presenting a high risk of ignition such as smoking and contractors' operations involving 'hot work'.

Review arrangements for calling the emergency services in the event of fire:

• In the event of fire a personal telephone call using the 999 system must be made at the earliest opportunity. A full response is not likely to be made to calls received via automatic fire alarms without such confirmation from the scene.

• To reduce unnecessary burdens on the emergency services at this time special care must be taken to minimise the possibility of unwanted actuations of automatic fire detection systems.

• Check that effective arrangements are in place for a responsible person to meet fire crews on arrival and provide them with appropriate information - for example, the location of the nearest fire hydrant or other water supply.

Consider the need for additional staffing or patrols:

• Where buildings or parts of buildings remain unoccupied for long periods.

• For damage control and recovery operations in heritage buildings and for buildings with other high value contents.

• For the evacuation of non ambulant persons.