Your school’s fire safety measures should stop fires from starting, and its evacuation procedures should get everyone out if one does.

But some people cannot understand fire safety information, or evacuate on their own, so your school needs plans for them too. Evacuation procedures must also be tested regularly, to prove that they work.

This module explains personal emergency evacuation plans and fire drills. You are likely to play an important part in both.

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, employers must plan for emergencies, taking account of everyone at risk. Equality law, including the Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2018 and the Employment Equality Acts, also requires reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities.

So your school must put personal evacuation arrangements in place for anyone who would find it difficult to evacuate without help, or to understand fire safety procedures.

A personal emergency evacuation plan, or PEEP, is a tailored escape plan for an individual with specific needs, who cannot get out of the building without help.

It sets out exactly how that person will be warned, and helped to escape, if there is a fire. This may be through special arrangements, equipment, or help from named people.

PEEPs are most often needed for pupils or staff, but they may be needed for anyone who uses the school.

People who may need a PEEP include:

• People with physical, sensory or cognitive impairments, such as those with limited mobility, or who are blind, partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing.
• Pregnant staff and nursing mothers.
• People who may not understand the procedures, or who may become confused in an emergency, such as some people with learning disabilities, or whose first language is not English or Irish.
• People who work in or use upper floors, or more complex parts of the school, without an alternative escape route.
• People with a temporary injury, such as a pupil with a broken leg.

Plans are also needed for people who do not know the building or its evacuation procedures, such as part-time staff, visitors, parents and contractors.

It is not practical to write a separate plan for every visitor, so your school will usually have standard plans for visitors and contractors, sometimes called generic evacuation plans. These should be adapted whenever someone has particular needs.

Every person’s needs are different, so a PEEP must be prepared with care.

Information about the person’s needs is normally gathered on an emergency evacuation assessment form. The person in control and the fire wardens then use this information to prepare the PEEP.

The person who needs the plan, and their representative where appropriate, must be involved, so that the plan meets their needs and they are happy with it. PEEPs should be reviewed regularly, and whenever the person’s needs or the building change.

A PEEP sets out the arrangements a person needs. These may include:

• Visual alarms or vibrating pagers for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Irish Sign Language, Braille, audio recordings, large print or a voice alarm system, to share fire safety information with people with sensory impairments.
• Access equipment, such as ramps, evacuation lifts and evacuation chairs on escape routes.
• Help from named people, if the person cannot evacuate safely on their own, even with these measures.

The person who helps someone to evacuate does not have to be a fire warden. It could be you, another member of staff or, in some cases, a responsible pupil.

Helping should be voluntary, and should only form part of a PEEP if the person giving help has been properly trained, for example in using an evacuation chair.

If you are named in someone’s PEEP, your details and duties will be recorded in it. Make sure you know exactly what to do in an emergency.

Your school cannot rely on its evacuation procedures until it has proved that they work. That is why regular fire drills are essential.

Fire drills should be held at least once a year as a minimum. Ideally, schools should hold one at least once a term, including one at the start of each school year, so that new staff and pupils learn the procedures.

More drills may be needed after significant changes to escape routes or procedures. The person in control decides how often drills are needed, as part of the fire risk assessment.

Fire drills help to:

• Remind staff and pupils of the alarm, the escape routes, the assembly point and any special procedures.
• Test that fire safety measures work, and find areas where the alarm cannot be clearly heard or seen.
• Check that escape routes are free from obstructions.
• Measure how quickly and calmly everyone evacuates.
• Give fire wardens and the people named in PEEPs the chance to practise their roles.
• Test the roll call procedure.

Holding drills is also part of meeting your school’s legal duties.

To test procedures properly, drills should be as close to a real fire as possible. For example, your school can:

• Ask some staff or fire wardens to observe the drill, rather than take part.
• Let staff know that drills will take place during the term, to avoid panic and confusion.
• Ask a member of staff to raise the alarm from the nearest call point, without showing them where it is, to test their knowledge.
• Pretend that one escape route is blocked by fire, so that people practise using a different route.
• Hold drills at different times of day, for example during an assembly or a break.

Whether you take part or observe, note:

• Any problems with communication or movement. Could everyone hear or see the alarm? Could you give clear instructions to your class? Did pupils move in an orderly way?
• Which routes people used. Did everyone take the nearest escape route?
• How quickly each route cleared, and anything that caused a delay.
• Whether people with PEEPs got out safely, and whether their plans worked. If you were assisting someone, were you able to?

Also look out for:

• Fire exit doors that were hard to open.
• Unsafe behaviour, such as stopping to collect belongings, using lifts or running.
• Whether fire wardens remembered what to do.
• How well staff and pupils knew the escape routes and exits.
• Any difficulties with the roll call.

If you notice a problem, or a pupil tells you about one, report it to a fire warden or a senior member of staff. Lessons from every drill should be recorded, and used to improve the evacuation procedures and the fire risk assessment.