The importance of fire drills
Fire drills allow employees to practice leaving the workplace in an emergency. A practiced exit plan will allow everyone to respond quickly, calmly, and safely in the event of a real emergency. Periodic drills may also be required as part of your insurance coverage.
Fire Drill Objectives
The main goal of your fire drill should be to get everyone out efficiently and safely in the event of an emergency, but, as part of that, your goals should include:
– Provide employees the opportunity to practice emergency procedures in a simulated environment.
– Assess whether employees can carry out assigned emergency tasks
– Understand if evacuation procedures were effective
– Consideration of any changes or adjustments to improve performance
– Comply with any fire code or insurance requirements.
Frequency
The frequency with which you conduct fire drills should be determined by the local fire code and the fire hazards of your workplace. If your workplace presents serious fire hazards (eg, flammable materials) or complex exit procedures (eg, a high-rise building), fire drills should be conducted more frequently. For these types of workplaces, scheduled fire drills every three months may be appropriate, while other workplaces may only need drills every six months.
Announced vs. Unannounced
Employees prefer announced drills so they can plan for the event and minimize disruption to their work, but unannounced drills provide a more accurate representation of evacuation readiness. The type of exercise may also depend on your purpose for the event. For example, you may prefer an announced drill if you are introducing a new evacuation procedure. If employees are learning a new procedure, a scheduled drill will allow them to learn more effectively. However, since emergencies are never planned, you also want to use unannounced drills to see how people will react and ensure that everyone can get out efficiently and safely.
Assessment
Your security team should report back after every fire drill to assess how it went and if any changes to procedures or duties are needed. They should consider things like:
– Did the fire alarm go off?
– Did all employees hear the alarm?
– Did all employees evacuate?
– Did the employees turn off the equipment before evacuating?
– Were the fire doors opened?
– Did the designated employees fulfill their security duties?
– Did the employees follow the evacuation routes?
– Were the evacuation routes clear?
– Did any employee need assistance?
– Did the employees go to the assembly areas after leaving?
– Were they all accounted for?
Using these questions, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your evacuation plan and make improvements. These are a critical part of workplace safety and can help protect employees not only from fire but also from other situations that require a quick exit from the workplace, such as power outages.
