When conducting training, it is important that the drill be organized and conducted:

The fire drill is an unavoidable event that evokes all kinds of emotions – there’s the summertime fire drill, when everyone is all too happy to put down tools and have five minutes in the sunshine chatting.

Then there’s the rainy day fire drill, that invariably makes you trudge outside in the cold and the rain – without stopping to collect belongings or, more importantly, coats!

But despite the mixed reactions, or the time of year, fire drills are an absolutely essential event in every work calendar…

1. Practice makes perfect!

The first, and most important reason for a fire drill is the experience it gives. It’s vital that everyone in the building knows and understands the evacuation plan, so in the event of a real emergency, they know which staircase to take, where the fire exits are located, where the assembly point is and most importantly – that there is no need to panic.

Your staff should undergo sufficient fire awareness training to prepare them for an emergency and ensure they have all the information they need to respond appropriately to a fire drill or real situation.

2. Identify weak spots

No matter how thoroughly you organise your escape from a burning building, it will never go to plan. There might be a corridor blocked with a stationary delivery that hasn’t been unloaded yet or a door that has been inadvertently locked for security, that you never realised could present a fire hazard until it’s hindering your escape route.

A fire drill presents the perfect opportunity to tighten up on rules and amend your risk assessment to ensure nothing like this happens in the event of a real fire outbreak.

3. Test alarms

Although it is a legal requirement that your alarms are tested weekly to ensure they never fail in an emergency, it’s all too easy to overlook checking a sounder in the ladies bathroom, or the visual alarm devices on the top floor.

In the event of a fire drill, everything will have to be tested. Your fire marshal will have to check every area of your premises and account for every body – and it will be evident the loo alarms aren’t working if a straggler appears a few minutes after everyone else exclaiming that they didn’t hear the alarm.

4. Fulfil your legal obligations

Of course, one of the most important reasons to carry our regular fire drills is to comply with the law. According to legislation, you are required to fit your premises with an appropriate fire warning system and use it to carry out at least one fire drill every year, during working hours and it must include all staff. Every time you hire new staff, you should inform them of the fire drill procedure and ensure they are aware of all risks and the formal evacuation plan.

Every fire drill you carry out must then be recorded and if the results are less than satisfactory, you should carry out another risk assessment and update your evacuation plan to resolve any potential problems.

5. Do you have everything you need?

Since your last fire drill, your work environment may have changed, you may have hired more staff, or even staff with mobility problems or changed the layout of your premises. Although any changes in your environment should instigate a new risk assessment and result in an updated plan, testing the new plan with a fire drill is the perfect way to check you have got it right.

It may become apparent that you need to install more emergency lighting or a new fire escape sign, or even invest in a new alarm with flashing beacons to warn deaf people or the hard of hearing. Whatever your fire drill uncovers, it allows you the chance to correct it quickly in case of a real emergency.

Keeping all your staff fully trained is the best way to ensure a fire drill is effective at fulfilling every purpose. For more information about your legal requirements, the best way to protect our business and staff and professional fire awareness training for your team – contact the experts at Health & Safety Training Ltd.     

Fires onboard form a great part of maritime casualties. One way to address them is the proper training through efficient and regular drills, which ensure that crew members are ready to handle a fire onboard. But what are the steps to be followed for a proper fire drill?

As per SOLAS, fire drills must be carried out with specific frequency (depending the vessel’s type) in order to ensure crew’s familiarity with equipment and procedures:

Training

Fire is a critical situation requiring ‘all hands on deck’ to participate in the emergency. As such, all crew members should be assigned with tasks as per muster list, taking into consideration the type of the vessel, any special compartments’ requirements and the availability of systems onboard.

At initial stages of training (and drills), it is necessary to familiarize personnel with equipment and systems, prior engaging them to a full-scale scenario.

Special reference should be made on appropriate procedure of closing openings, doors, ventilating shafts, fire doors, in order to reduce the supply of oxygen to the fire and isolate smoke.

The stage of preparation and training during drills is the appropriate clothing & uniforms’ use. Fireman outfit should be tried by all available crew members so that all of them be able to react. The signals with tow line should be explained in order both fireman and line handler to be familiar with the signals.

As each area of the ship has a different method of approaching and attacking fire emergency situations, different ways and approaches should be considered and tested.

A full scale scenario is to be tested after completion of all initial training stages. The equipment and systems’ familiarization stage should be repeated during every change of crew.

Step by step drill

• Crew members need guidance and senior officers (Chief officer/Chief Engineer) should provide detailed guidance for each step of drill. This will provide the necessary confidence to crew members on how to react during real situations.
• Each drill should simulate reality as much as possible. Turning off lighting or use training smoke creates a close to reality environment.
• Injured personnel evacuation with stretcher’s use should be part of the drill in order to provide training on different technics (vertical transfer, accommodation stairway use, etc.).
• An effective briefing (toolbox meeting) should be the starting point of the drill. An effective debriefing and a written evaluation should be final stage of each drill.

SQE has developed a sample of toolbox meeting in order to be used as guidance onboard.

read more here

PROCEDURES: Read in this series

Which of the following is the first criterion for determining the adequate level of training?

What is the first priority in aircraft firefighting?