The Egress Policy section of the document will assist with meeting the following aims:
Organisations have an obligation to ensure that all users of their buildings can escape safely in an emergency. It is necessary for those responsible to have clear policy objectives for safe egress and to demonstrate a commitment to ensuring that the needs of everyone can be met. To meet this objective, it will be necessary for organisations to comply with all statutory requirements, and commit adequate and reasonable financial resources and personnel.
The organisation's approach to a whole range of issues needs to be established such as:
An understanding of the legislation that impacts upon safe egress is important so that the full extent of the obligations placed upon building operators is known. It is also important to be clear about where the responsibility for ensuring safe egress lies and to establish the overall strategy for emergency egress from the building.
In addition to a moral duty of care to building users, there are a number of pieces of legislation that place a responsibility on public bodies, building owners and employers to ensure the safety, health and welfare of anyone using a particular building.
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (2005) requires every employer to ensure the design, provision and maintenance of a safe means of access to and egress from the workplace for employees.
Sections 8, 9 and 10 of this Act require that sufficient information, training and supervision is provided to ensure the safety of employees, and also that such instruction, training etc. must take account of any employees with specific needs, to ensure their protection against dangers that may affect them.
Under Section 11, employers are required to prepare and revise adequate plans and procedures to be followed, and measures to be taken in the case of an emergency, and that employers provide the necessary measures for fire fighting and the evacuation of employees and any other individual present in the workplace.
Section 12 clarifies that consideration must also be given to the safety of persons other than employees within the workplace.
To comply with Section 19 of the Act, employers are required to carry out risk assessments for all Health and Safety issues, including emergency egress, and to record these in the Safety Statement.
The Safety Statement brings this all together in the context of employees in Section 20 of the act. However, a good quality Safety Statement also has the capacity to form the basis of the Evacuation Strategy for all users of the building.
Fire safety within existing buildings is covered within the provisions of the Fire Services Act (1981), which empowers local fire authorities to carry out inspections to ensure the adequacy of fire-related matters in relation to existing premises.
The Building Control Act (1990) provides the framework for the modern Irish building control system. This legislation regulates standards in building construction and design through the introduction of building regulations. The principal aim of building regulations is to provide for the health, safety and welfare of people in and around buildings.
Part B (2002) of the Building Regulations, entitled 'Fire Safety' requires the developer of every new building, with the exception of domestic buildings, to obtain a fire safety certificate for the premises. Although there are different certificates for different types of development, it is necessary for developers to send a copy of their designs to their local fire authority for approval.
There are 37 fire authorities throughout Ireland and their contact details are available at www.irishfireservices.com (NB. this is not an official fire authority website.)
Part M (2000) of the Building Regulations, entitled 'Access for People with Disabilities', covers issues relating to accessibility.
The Licensing of Indoor Events Act (2003) places a responsibility on any person to whom a licence has been granted to take all reasonable measures to ensure the safety of everyone attending the event.
There are also a number of Acts that provide a legislative framework for organisations to ensure that premises and services comply with minimum accessibility requirements. These include the Employment Equality Act (1998/2004), the Equal Status Act (2000/2004), the Disability Act (2005) and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (2005).
The main driving legislation for ensuring accessibility to public buildings is the Disability Act (2005).
Part 3 imposes a duty on public bodies to ensure, over time, that public buildings and services are accessible to people with disabilities. The standard for access is Part M of the Building Regulations and public buildings must be compliant by 2015. Public buildings must comply with amendments to Part M no later than ten years after the commencement of such amendments.
The responsibility for evacuating people with disabilities lies with those who manage the building on a day-to-day basis, not with the fire service. In the vast majority of cases this is the occupant. It is a common misconception that once a person with a disability has reached a safe refuge area within the stair enclosures of a building, nothing further needs to be done by the management, and the fire service will ensure they are brought down the stairs to ground level when they arrive.
It is essential that evacuation of people with disabilities takes place as soon as possible and it is the responsibility of those in charge of the building to ensure this happens.
The ultimate responsibility will rest with the most senior person in the organisation but specific personnel will have designated responsibility. It is extremely important that there is no doubt about who holds operational responsibility for safe egress in each organisation. It is also extremely important that the responsible people are given full support from the highest level and are provided with the necessary authority and resources to ensure that they can deliver.
At the design stage of the building a decision will have been taken about the type of emergency evacuation procedure to be used. This decision will have influenced the layout of the building and the fire safety measures incorporated into it.
There are three main strategies commonly used:
When considering the planning of emergency egress it is important that an understanding of the built-in safety measures is obtained, particularly if the building has been subject to a fire engineering solution for means of escape at design stage.
Changing the evacuation strategies of an existing building may require some degree of work to the building structure and fire safety systems.
It is recommended that the egress policy is contained within the organisation's Safety Statement.