Bannermans Fire Safety Guidelines – Step 1

Posted 20 May 2024

Category: Aluminium Cladding, eBooks

1. Evacuation Plan

Unlike a commercial office, residential buildings are not generally required to undertake a fire drill but, in your circumstances, the scheme could consider developing, implementing and training the residents on an evacuation plan.

Such a plan lays out the roles, responsibilities and required actions for a building’s key personnel and other residents. It is best to keep the plan simple and generic in nature as its intent is to provide coordinated and crucial emergency services in the event of a fire and not cater for every emergency.

Whilst we recommend engaging a lawyer and consultant to undertake a safety audit, there are a number of simple things that an owners corporation can do to make the scheme safer:

• Ensure fire safety inspection of the common property are carried out at least annually to identify issues relating to the fire services within the building;

• Ensure residents of each level are aware of the:
  • locations of firefighting equipment (e.g. fire hose reels, portable fire extinguishers) on their level and how to use them; and
  • exit points that are in the building and where they lead to;

• Ensure that any renovations that have altered the front door of the apartment have resulted in the installation of a certified fire resistant door;

• Ensure owners of each apartment have a suitable number of working smoke alarms installed;

• Assist residents in developing a home escape plan for their apartment, and recommend that they practise it at least twice a year;

• Ask residents to check that their windows and screens can be easily opened and to remove any furniture that may be blocking access to them. It is important to balance the requirements of windows being both child safe and easily opened by adults;

• Ask that residents report any problems with fire stair doors to building management immediately to ensure they self-close every time and prevent smoke and heat from entering the fire stairs in the event of a fire;

• Ask residents to not leave anything in a fire stair well at any time as this may hinder the path out of the building in the event of a fire; and

• Ask residents to never place burning or hot materials, flammable liquids or oily rags into garbage chutes.

This is an extract from our Bannermans Aluminium Cladding Fire Safety Guidelines.

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