No alarms without smoke?
06 Oct 2011
An evacuation alarm can signify a fire, flood, chemical or gas leak, or suspicious package: leave the building immediately and make sure that students and new members of staff follow your lead.
It’s that time of year again.
An influx of new students - eager to learn, eager to achieve and eager to follow our lead.
It’s also the time when Health and Safety Services arrange practice evacuations – during which the building alarms are set off and occupants are expected to leave the building in a prompt and orderly fashion. You will know this is not the weekly alarm test because it will continue for more than a few seconds.
Please don’t assume any alarm is a practice evacuation or an accidental activation: if it is real, by the time you realise this you may have put your life - and the lives of fire marshals, security officers and the emergency services - in danger.
It’s important that you lead by example and encourage good patterns of behaviour in newcomers, by helping and directing students, visitors and new members of staff to exit the building by the nearest safe route. Don’t rely on anyone else to get you out.
Remember - there are thousands of new students and staff who will be less familiar than you with buildings and escape routes and who will be glad of your guidance. So please don’t wait to be ushered out of your office by evacuation marshals or security – take the lead and set a good example.
These tests also provide an opportunity for PSS staff to assess fully all of the evacuation equipment and to identify faults. It is also worth noting that evacuation alarms don’t always signify a fire: they have been used on campus to evacuate buildings following flooding, chemical leaks, mains gas leaks and suspicious packages. So just because there’s no smoke, don’t assume there’s no emergency.
Associate Vice Presidents and Deans of Faculty, along with Heads of School and Directors of all other areas, have been encouraged to monitor the reactions of staff and students. They have also been asked to consider disciplinary action where individuals are particularly late in leaving their work areas, or do not immediately exit the building.