Fire wardens play a key role in supporting staff, students and visitors to stay safe in the event of a fire.
Introduction
In the event of a fire alarm being actuated, Fire Wardens are required to perform a sweep of the building to make sure that everyone has evacuated. Due to the size, complexity and occupancy of University buildings it is not practical to maintain a register of building occupants.
Heads of Departments are responsible for ensuring there are a sufficient number of Fire Wardens for their area. Generally, there should be a minimum of two Fire Wardens per floor per building. It may be necessary to communicate with other Departments who share the same building to check on the location of other Fire Wardens.
Heads of Department should forward details of volunteers who would like to be Fire Wardens to the SHEW, so that they can be enrolled on the online Fire Warden Training course.
Fire Warden Duties
Fire Wardens primary responsibilities are: - To sweep their areas of responsibility to ensure that all persons are accounted for and instructed to leave immediately by the nearest available exit.
To identify, assist or report the location of any individual in imminent danger or requiring assistance as necessary.
To act as “trained staff” in the use of fire extinguishers provided – but only where they have been trained, feel confident to use an extinguisher, and are not putting themselves in danger.
Routine Duties
Assist in maintaining a “fire safe” environment by carrying out regular checks (these can be informal) of escape routes and fire safety equipment provided within the building. Take appropriate action to remove or resolve issues by reporting to your Line Manager or Head of Department. Things to consider may include, but are not limited to:
The condition of fire resisting doors
Ensuring that fire doors are not wedged open
Fire detectors are unobstructed
Emergency lights appear to be in a reasonable state of repair.
Housekeeping standards are reasonable
Means of escape routes are clear and free of storage
Fire extinguishers are in their designated positions
On hearing the fire alarm or discovery of a fire
Fire Wardens are to carry out the following duties in a safe, calm and helpful manner:
Wear their Fire Warden Hi-Viz jackets so they can be easily identified.
Ensure that the fire alarm has been raised (if not already sounding) by operating the nearest break glass call point.
Start sweeping their area of responsibility requesting politely but firmly that all staff, students and visitors leave the building immediately by the nearest available fire exit route and proceed to the designated fire assembly point.
Remind evacuating occupants to make their work areas safe before evacuating. This could include shutting off equipment, machinery or making experiments or research rigs safe before leaving the area/building. Fire Wardens should then inform Security/Senior Building Manager/Fire Service of any potential hazards on leaving the building.
Report to a Senior Building Manager/Security on leaving the building the following information:
The location of the cause of the fire (if known) and any other relevant information.
That their area of responsibility is clear or, if persons are still left in their area, where and why they are still in the building (For example, refused to leave, fighting the fire, waiting at a Disabled Refuge Point)
Proceed to the fire assembly point for the building with building occupants. However:
Some Fire Wardens should position themselves at entrances/exits to the building to prevent persons re-entering whilst the emergency evacuation is in progress.
It is acceptable for building occupants to disperse elsewhere but they will not receive information about when it is safe to re-enter the building.
When evacuating onto roads be mindful of vehicular traffic and instruct building occupants to keep to paths rather than the road.
- Inform building occupants that they may re-enter the building when instructed to do so by Security/Fire Service/Senior Building Manager.
To do their duties effectively, Fire Wardens need to:
Get to know their fellow Fire Wardens in the building even if they are from a different department and have an informal plan of who will station themselves at entrances/exits during and following evacuation.
periodically walk all escape routes in their building, even if they are routes that are not often used regularly. Doors normally held closed should release on activation of the fire alarm system. If they fail to do so, the green break glass door override will allow access through the door.
Be pro-active.
Fire Warden do's
Do wear your Hi-Viz jacket to identify yourself. Keep it handy.
Do encourage building occupants to leave the building as quickly as possible by the nearest available exit route.
Do encourage building occupants to go to the fire assembly point for the building and prevent re-entry into the building.
Fire Warden don’ts
Do not re-enter the building until told. Fire alarm sounders being silenced does not mean that the incident is finished, the Fire Service and/or Security may want to have the alarms silenced whilst they search the building or carry out other operations.
Do not re-enter the building to carry out your duties, leave the sweep to those Fire Wardens who are in the building. You can assist at the fire assembly point or help by preventing re-entry into the building.
Do not get into arguments with people who refuse to leave the building. Take a note of who and where they are then report them to Security as soon as possible afterwards.
Supporting people with disabilities
People with disabilities may be staff, students or visitors to the University. They may have a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan) written to ensure their safe evacuation from the building. This will help identify suitable managerial and practical assistance to those persons to achieve safe egress form the building in the event of a fire.
As Fire wardens you should be aware of the following:
There are refuge points sited within the building as places of relative safety where mobility impaired persons can wait for assistance.
On the main campus there is a horizontal evacuation route to enable mobility impaired persons to evacuate to a different building. This is on level 3.
Security have been trained on the use of evacuation chairs and evacuation lifts and will be able to assist as necessary.