Updated NFCC guidance on waking watch

[hammer1]

01052018NFCC_simultaneous_Evacuation_guidance_final_doc.pdf

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At last some common sense risk base approach guidance on this issue......................

[Waterbaby]

Glad they gave definition of 'waking watch' - wasn't familiar with that exact term

"Waking Watch (also referred to as a fire watch)
2.16. A system whereby staff continually patrol all floors and the exterior perimeter of the building in order to respond to a fire,
assist in calling the fire service and assisting with the evacuation of occupants of the building."

WB

[bernicarey]

When I joined the RAF in the 70s, during your training one of the duties you picked up was Fire Watch. You were rostered for however many hours on/off during the night, patrolling the camp in pairs looking for any signs of fire. if you did find anything, you were to run to the nearest Call Point and set it off. Never did such duties on an operations station, probably because they had already started to change over to proper Alarm Systems.

In those days, RAF Stations had Call Points on posts placed strategically across the estate, but none in buildings. If you broke the glass and pulled the lever, a huge machine in the guardroom flashed lights, sounded buzzers and churned out punch tape like you see on old movies of people checking their share prices, literally the stuff used on 'Ticker Tape Parades in places like New York. You had to decipher the hole pattern on the strip of paper into a Call Point Number and then check the map!!
They were probably a leftover from the 1930s, although you can still see similar items in East Coast USA cities even now.




All such anecdotes aside, thanks for the update Hammer

[Messy]

The RAF is a disciplined, uniformed and highly trained group of individuals. Generally the staff would understand why a wakeful watch was necessary and be more motivated to do it properly.

Compare that with the low cost fire watchers being employed on minimum wage (or less), with minimum education, training or English as their first language.

The night time wakeful watch is of course the most critical but the least supervised. I will be controversial in suggesting that significant proportion of fire watchers are resting at night and not on active patrol

I am sure there are well run teams, but landlords and businesses generally opt for the cheapest approach.

A friend of mine is leading a campaign to get cladding issues sorted on a South London tall block. She is doing really well and is not the usual resident representative as she works in FM and knows her stuff

She has found the same fire watchers sleeping on the staircase in her block 3 x times. It turns out he had 2 additional jobs - despite being in the UK on a visitor visa.

Ok this is one example but I do not accept it's a one off. This interim period while we all wait for the inquiry to report is a very stressful state of limbo for residents and expensive for landlords. Let's hope it gets sorted soon

[bernicarey]

Very True Messy.