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Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

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stephen1974
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Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

Post by stephen1974 »

I've just had someone come back off of a course (dont know what it was about) but they've said the person teaching the course, apparently a "fire inspector" told them that sweeps of the building must take no more than a minute, that they should go away and test their procedures and for every minute it takes to sweep an area (not the whole building, just one area) you should have 1 fire marshal on duty.

Has anyone ever heard of this? the impracticalities of this in my building are ridiculous. Even if you had 5 people to clear an area you would have to have someone sitting on seats at x amount of points around the building to have them clear an area and get outside in a minute as it's so large. (Sports center).
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Re: Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

Post by Messy »

Its nonsense.

Even the concept of 1 fire Marshall being involved in a sweep is pathetic and demonstrates the lack of knowledge of this fool*. Best practice is for those undertaking a sweep to work at least in pairs for obvious safety reasons.

OK, it could be a misunderstanding by the person who told you but more likely its an over enthusiastic and incompetent 'fire inspector'.


* I know that this site runs with the tag line of "There is no such thing as a "stupid" or "daft" health and safety question!" - I agree, but there are some right pillocks working in the industry isn't there? Probably the type that wouldn't dream of self study/improvement by researching resources such as this website
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Re: Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

Post by bernicarey »

Yet another individual's opinion being touted as 'fact'.
Clearly they can't take 10 minutes over it, the place must be broken down into manageable areas, but 60 seconds is ridiculous.
I think most Fire safety plans I've seen it specified in, it's been 2 minutes.
Although I did see one, when I was just looking for some examples, for the Convention Centre in Dublin where it specified a max of 5 mins for internal sweeps and 6 mins for external areas.
That's not for actual sweeps during an evacuation, but for Centre Security to do a sweep on a silent alarm, before they sound the main alarm....
https://www.theccd.ie/media/appendicies_1.pdf
www.belvoirsafety.co.uk

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stephen1974
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Re: Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

Post by stephen1974 »

Messy wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:11 pm Its nonsense.

Even the concept of 1 fire Marshall being involved in a sweep is pathetic and demonstrates the lack of knowledge of this fool*. Best practice is for those undertaking a sweep to work at least in pairs for obvious safety reasons.

OK, it could be a misunderstanding by the person who told you but more likely its an over enthusiastic and incompetent 'fire inspector'.


* I know that this site runs with the tag line of "There is no such thing as a "stupid" or "daft" health and safety question!" - I agree, but there are some right pillocks working in the industry isn't there? Probably the type that wouldn't dream of self study/improvement by researching resources such as this website

There is only 1 person though. This is common in leisure as they operate on minimum staffing levels at all times. It's an issue i've raised with fire services again and again and again and they don't have a solution for it. You cant do such buildings on minimal staffing levels.

What he is saying is there should be 1 person for every minute that it takes to check the building. So if there were 2 people, they would still be operating independently as one would have to go in one direction and one in another direction. If they wanted it done in a minute it would take at least 3 of us and one would have to be sitting in the corner of the building as where the staff are based it takes 60 seconds to get over there and of course 60 seconds to get back.

I think he has probably misunderstood what has been said to him but without being there who knows. He now planning on 'running drills' and timing people, which is fine, but with what we have to check, its at least a 3 minutes job, probably more. I dont think I could do it in under 3 minutes unless I was running, and im not running.
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Re: Time to clear buildings, do a sweep, query

Post by stephen1974 »

bernicarey wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 7:13 pm
That's not for actual sweeps during an evacuation, but for Centre Security to do a sweep on a silent alarm, before they sound the main alarm....
https://www.theccd.ie/media/appendicies_1.pdf
Ours would be similar, a few minutes where its not silent, they do a "mr whatever to reception" deal that gives you time to investigate before the evacuation message starts up.
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