When the fire alarm sounds, everyone needs to know exactly what to do. Confusion and hesitation cost time, and in a fire, time is what saves lives.

Every workplace must have a written emergency plan, and fire wardens are at the heart of it. In this final module, you will learn how the plan works, what your duties are during an evacuation, and why practice through fire drills matters so much.

Under the Fire Safety Order, every employer, property owner, manager or occupier must create a written emergency plan that includes fire emergency procedures. It should set out what employees must do if they find a fire, and how people will be alerted, for example by audible alarms. It should describe how the workplace is evacuated, including arrangements for people with disabilities, and state that nobody re-enters the building until the fire service or the person in charge confirms it is safe.

It must name the assembly point, explain how attendance is checked there, and give the location and use of fire-fighting equipment. It should identify employees with specific responsibilities, including you as a fire warden, and explain how to contact the fire and emergency services and who is responsible for doing so.

In this module you will learn about:

• The emergency plan, and what it should contain.
• Personal emergency evacuation plans.
• What to do if you discover a fire.
• Your duties as a fire warden during an evacuation.
• The assembly point, and working with the fire service.
• Fire drills.

The emergency plan is based on the fire risk assessment. It should set out:

• How the alarm is raised, and how the fire service is called.
• The escape routes, exits and assembly points.
• The duties of fire wardens and others, including who is in overall charge.
• How people with disabilities, and visitors, will be helped out.
• How the building will be checked and everyone accounted for.
• How to shut down dangerous processes or equipment, if it is safe to do so.

Everyone must know the plan, and it should be explained to new staff on their first day.

The emergency plan must also cover the instruction and training of employees and visitors. They should be told what to do if they discover a fire and how to react when the alarm sounds. They need to know how the fire brigade is called, how to evacuate safely, and where the escape routes are. Those trained to use fire-fighting equipment need to know where it is kept, and everyone must know where the evacuation assembly point is.

The information should also explain why fire doors must stay closed, why good housekeeping matters, and why fire drills are needed and how often they happen. You need to understand all of this, especially as it relates to your own role, so that you can pass it on to others. It is also essential for helping with evacuations and for getting yourself out safely.

General evacuation procedures make sure everyone knows how to use the escape routes safely in an emergency. People without specific roles, whether employees or visitors, should leave the building promptly when the alarm sounds or they are told about an emergency. Everybody should leave their area calmly and safely, using the nearest and most direct escape route. Lifts can be unsafe in a fire, so avoid them, and do not delay your escape by stopping to collect personal belongings.

Go directly to the designated assembly point and wait there for further instructions. In all but the smallest workplaces, employers appoint fire wardens to help carry out the evacuation procedures. Your role is to make sure people in your area have left safely, while also getting out safely yourself without taking risks with your own wellbeing.

Anyone who may need help to escape should have a personal emergency evacuation plan, often called a PEEP.

• It is agreed with the person, and sets out how they will be alerted and how they will get out.
• It names the people who will help them, and the equipment they will use, such as an evacuation chair.
• It can be needed permanently, for example for a wheelchair user, or temporarily, for example for someone with a broken leg or in late pregnancy.

Visitors who may need help should be identified when they sign in, and a plan made for them.

Suitable evacuation procedures must be in place for people with disabilities or vulnerabilities, and the duty holder must consider this in the fire risk assessment. People who may need extra help include those with mobility impairments, such as wheelchair users or people who use walking aids. They include people with sight impairments, who may be partially sighted or blind, and those with hearing impairments, who may be partially or fully deaf.

Cognitive impairments, such as learning difficulties, also matter. Others may be temporarily vulnerable during a fire. Someone with a short-term injury, like a broken leg, will move more slowly. A person with a temporary medical condition who takes medication that causes drowsiness may be less alert. Women in the later stages of pregnancy may also need help to evacuate.

During the fire risk assessment, the responsible person considers the factors that could affect how safely people with disabilities and vulnerabilities can evacuate, and uses them to decide the necessary procedures. They look at the person's particular disability or vulnerability and how it may affect them in an evacuation. They consider how well the person knows the premises and the evacuation procedures. The location of the person's workplace in the building matters, because if their mobility is affected it may take them longer to leave from their usual position.

They check whether the person can recognise alarms independently or whether their disability affects this. They ask whether the person can leave the building without help. Finally, they consider features of the building that affect evacuation, such as stairs or ramps.

Businesses are legally obliged to make reasonable adjustments so that people with disabilities and vulnerabilities are safe in a fire. Adjustments might include alarm systems with features to alert people who are deaf or partially deaf, such as flashing beacons or pagers. For people with mobility impairments, they might include aids and access equipment such as ramps, handholds, evacuation chairs and well-lit routes. The responsible person must also make sure the safety methods are acceptable to the people they are designed for.

If an evacuation chair is part of the plan, for example, check that the person who needs it agrees to use it, or look at alternatives, such as carrying them in their own chair if that is possible. As a fire warden, learn the procedures for helping vulnerable people so that you can help them to leave safely.

If you discover a fire:

• Raise the alarm immediately, by operating the nearest fire alarm call point.
• Call the fire service on 112 or 999, or make sure that someone has done so. Never assume that someone else has called.
• Only tackle the fire if it is small, you are trained, and it is safe to do so.
• Leave the building by the nearest safe exit, closing doors behind you.
• Go to the assembly point and report to the person in charge.

If you discover a fire and the alarm has not been activated, first operate the nearest manual call point so the whole building is alerted. Then dial 999 or the appropriate emergency number and tell the emergency services about the fire. Give precise details of where your workplace is and as much other information as you can, to speed up their response. Then check your area to make sure people are evacuating promptly and safely, and point them to the nearest fire exit.

As a fire warden you must take the lead in an emergency, because people do not always react as expected. Some do not grasp the urgency straight away and hesitate. People often watch what others do before they respond themselves, so your guidance and your quick action are critical to a safe and organised evacuation.

When the alarm sounds, put on your fire warden vest, if you have one, and check your area quickly and systematically:

• Tell everyone to leave immediately by the nearest safe exit, and not to stop for belongings.
• Check every room, toilet, kitchen, meeting room and store in your area, but only if it is safe to do so.
• Close doors behind you, to slow the spread of fire and smoke. Do not lock them.
• Make sure nobody uses the lifts.
• Help anyone who needs assistance, following their evacuation plan.

When you sweep your designated area during an evacuation, take these steps. Check that everyone has begun to leave and that nobody has missed the alarm, paying particular attention to vulnerable people and offering help if they need it. Look in isolated parts of your zone, such as refuges, toilets and any other space where someone might be, to confirm that everyone has started to evacuate and knows there is an emergency.

Help disabled and vulnerable people if necessary, which may mean making sure other designated employees are helping them, or organising others to do so. Make a note of where anyone is who cannot or should not evacuate, because you will report this to the fire authorities at the assembly point and at roll call. Remember that you guide and assist the evacuation. You do not carry out rescues. Leave those to trained professionals.

Part of your duties during an evacuation is to limit the spread of fire and smoke. Closing windows and doors on your way out starves the fire of oxygen and reduces the spread of smoke. Never lock them, because the exit routes must stay open. Lifts must not be used in most circumstances, so remind people to use the stairs and follow the no lift signs.

You must also decide whether it is feasible to fight the fire safely. Tackling a small fire with the correct extinguisher is only appropriate if it is safe to do so, if you have been trained and if you have the right equipment. Fire fighting without training and equipment is dangerous, so if there is any doubt, do not attempt it. Your priority is always the safe evacuation of everyone in your area.

A fire warden is not expected to take risks. During an evacuation:

• Never enter a room that is full of smoke, or where you can feel heat through the door.
• Never go back into the building once you have left it.
• Do not delay your own escape to search areas that are not yours.
• If someone refuses to leave, do not argue. Leave, and report it at the assembly point.

Your most valuable contribution is accurate information: which areas are clear, and where anyone may still be inside.

• Make sure everyone from your area goes to the assembly point, and stays there.
• Report to the person in charge, often called the chief fire warden or fire marshal, and confirm whether your area is clear.
• Report anyone who is missing, anyone left in a refuge, and anything you saw, such as where the fire is.
• Help with the roll call, using signing-in records for staff and visitors.
• Keep people away from the building and out of the way of the fire service.

Nobody re-enters the building until the fire service or the person in charge says it is safe.

After you have completed your checks and confirmed that people in your vicinity have left, leave the premises and go to the designated assembly point with everyone else. Do this while it is still safe, and do not stay in the building longer than you need to. If you are not the person designated to take the roll call, tell the person who is. Pass on any concerns or problems you have noticed, particularly those involving people with disabilities or vulnerabilities.

Help to keep people at the assembly point until the official signal that normal activities can resume. You should also be ready to communicate with the fire and rescue authorities when they arrive, particularly if they ask for specific information, because what you tell them can shape their response.

When the fire service arrives, the person in charge should meet them and give them information quickly. This includes:

• Where the fire is, and what is burning, if known.
• Whether anyone is missing or still in the building, and where they may be.
• The location of any dangerous substances, gas cylinders or other hazards.
• Details of the building layout, access points and the fire alarm panel.

Fire wardens may be asked what they saw. Give clear, simple facts.

An emergency plan cannot be relied on until it has been practised. Fire drills:

• Should be held at least once a year, and more often in higher-risk workplaces or where staff change frequently.
• Test whether everyone can hear the alarm, knows the way out, and gets out in good time.
• Give fire wardens practice in their duties.
• Show up problems, such as blocked routes, slow areas or missing people.

After every drill, the results should be recorded and discussed, and the plan improved where needed.

An evacuation procedure cannot be relied on until it has been tested in practice, normally by a fire drill. Every workplace, except a simple single-storey building of one or two rooms, should hold a fire drill at least once a year. In multi-level or multi-tenant buildings, the responsible party, whether owner, landlord or building manager, must work with each occupier to coordinate the fire evacuation procedures. On construction sites, the principal contractor should run fire evacuation drills regularly.

Some situations call for more frequent drills, particularly multi-storey buildings and places with confined working spaces such as basements. In these cases drills may be held every three or six months. As a fire warden, you will take part in drills and should use them to practise your duties and suggest improvements.

Fire drills are important because they test how effective the evacuation procedures are, and they remind people how to react in an emergency. They also let people practise the roles and responsibilities set out earlier in this course, especially fire wardens. Any observations about how well the evacuation worked are recorded by a designated person and then built into the fire risk assessment and the fire emergency plan.

Any improvements that are needed must be made promptly. After the changes have been introduced, the fire risk assessment should be reviewed, and the relevant updates passed on to everyone concerned. If you notice something during a drill, such as a blocked route or people who did not hear the alarm, report it so it can be put right.