Fire Staff Training
Once the emergency plan has been established and all employees made aware of it, the plan then has to be tried and tested to ensure it works. This is not a one off event and should be repeated as often as required. Dependant on the size of the workforce this will normally be once or twice a year.

As different times of the day and time of the year may produce their own problems training should be carried out to cover all eventualities. Training also needs to involve all employees. Consideration should also be given to those employees who work in the building but outside of the normal working day i.e. shift workers, maintenance contractors, cleaners etc.

It is therefore considered good working practice to keep a record of all fire training given to your staff.

Any records of training should include when fire evacuation drills have been carried out and who attended them

The training should include the following. Again this list is not exhaustive:

  • action to take on discovering a fire.
  • how to raise the alarm and action to take on hearing the fire alarm.
  • procedures for alerting members of the public etc and escorting them from the premises.
  • how to call the fire brigade and who is normally responsible for making the call.
  • how to evacuate the building, using designated escape routes and how to open fire escape doors on the route.
  • the importance of ensuring fire doors are kept closed.
  • if escaping from a smoke filled room the importance of keeping low to the ground.
  • the location and use of local fire fighting equipment.

See Also: Fire wardens / marshals

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