Building Fire Safety Made Simple

Building Fire Safety Made Simple
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Due to the wide variety of building classifications, there has been confusion in the provision of specific fire & evacuation safety requirements. The main objective of the legislation is to ensure that people can evacuate safely and quickly from a building in the event of fire or emergency and to ensure that required fire safety installations for the building are maintained so that they can operate in the way that they were originally intended.

To ensure that all buildings comply with these new requirements, the Queensland Government has set out penalties, under the Fire and Rescue Service Act 1990, of up to $5,000 for each instance of basic non-compliance, and of up to $150,000 or three years imprisonment if the non-compliance causes multiple deaths. The following checklist items are mandatory requirements under the Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008.

OCCUPIER REQUIREMENTS

• Maintain Fire Safety Installations- (Fire extinguishers, hose reels, hydrants, EWIS, WIP, MCP,Signage, etc)
• Keep Evacuation routes clear
• Prepare Evacuation Coordination Procedures. To include;
  • Alerting & communicating with all persons in the building
  • Arranging the safe evacuation of all persons including those with special needs from thebuilding
  • Checking that all persons have been evacuated
  • Meeting Fire Officers attending the emergency.
  • Appoint an evacuation coordinator
  • Maintain a written Fire Evacuation Plan for the building.
  • Must contain evacuation coordination procedures and evacuation diagrams for the building
  • Changes must be updated within 1 month
  • Must be reviewed at least annually
  • This must also be coordinated with other occupiers and adjacent building occupiers.
  • Install Evacuation signs & diagrams securely in place
  • Must have a “you are here” position indicated
  • Must be orientated to suit the “you are here” location
  • Must Show all exits from the building
  • Must Show the route to the nearest exit
  • Must show the route from the exit to the Emergency Assembly area.
  • Must indicate all the Fire Safety Installations in the building
  • Must state the procedures for safely exiting a building
  • A reasonable scale to be read in an emergency (A3)
  • At least 1 Evacuation sign needs to be drawn up to be included with the writtenFire Evacuation Plan.
  • Submit an annual occupier’s statement

HIGH OCCUPANCY BUILDING & BUDGET ACCOMMODATION OCCUPIER ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Appoint a Fire Safety Adviser
• Responsible for developing and modifying the Building Fire Safety Plan, providing evacuation instructions.
• Doesn’t have to be onsite or an employee
• Must have a BSA licence if they are a third party provider of fire protection services.
• Maintain a written Fire Safety Management Plan for the building.

RECORD KEEPING REQUIREMENTS

• Maintain training & other records - minimum 2 years
• Must keep a copy onsite and another copy offsite
• Includes;
  • Fire Safety Installation records
  • Fire Evacuation Plans, Signs & Diagram

For more information contact us on 0413 132 997 or visit www.winningsafety.com