A Real Emergency

Firstly (beep-beep)

The Emergency Evacation alert sound will be heard (that's the BEEP-BEEP sound).  The Chief Warden and Deputy should be present at the Control Panel, and therefore know what is wrong.  Proceed to your phone and call-in - the Chief/Deputy will tell you what's wrong and hopefully this will help in the next phase of the procedure. If YOU are the cause of the alarm (you've manually activated it because of a fire, for instance) give the details to the Chief/Deputy.

The Chief/Deputy will communicate with all the wardens to let them know what is going on and may give you instructions (eg "the panel shows a thermal detector in room 3030 has activated, please check it out"). An announcement will also be made to all the occupants of the building.

Evacuation Signal (WHOOP-WHOOP)

You are to evacuate your area of responsibility as quickly as possible.  Do not under any circumstances place yourself or others in any danger while doing so.  Once you have evacuated your area, contact the Chief Warden by phone (assuming there is no threat to you in remaining).No heroics. No Panic. Remember that when you have evacuated a room, close the door - compartmentalisation will retard the spread of fire considerably.

If you see/smell smoke - evacuate immediately, do not wait to talk to anyone on the WIP phones, but try to get a message to the Chief/Deputy.  Smoke inhalation will render you unconscious very quickly.  Do not become a casualty. Remember where your safe areas are - it may be sufficient to retreat behind a fire door; you should have given some forethought to this possibility.

Be aware that should there be a real fire it is quite likely that the smoke will spread quite widely in the building and the smoke will be extremely toxic.  Use common sense in moving through the building - keep low (crawl if necessary) to get to clean air; check the temperature of closed doors with the back of your hand before opening them. Do not attempt to open doors to offices if there is either heat or smoke showing. The temperature of the ball of flame and smoke which will erupt from the door is sufficient to burn your lungs (fatally) and the probability of an occupant surviving once the smoke has reached the floor is almost zero. Remember: it only takes 2 minutes for a room to become too hot to enter from an ignition by a single match. Do NOT become a casualty. Fire crews are trained in how to do this and they would have level-3 protective clothing and Compressed Air Breathing Aparatus on before considering entering such an area!

Page last updated: 11/5/1999 Kevin Maciunas