Stay Put or Evacuate?

Fire Safety in a building cannot be managed without knowing the building’s fire emergency strategy. ‘Stay put or Evacuate?’ is a question that has raised a lot of conversation since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017 and is still discussed today. Fire Risk Assessments form the foundation on which the entire fire strategy for a building rests, so it is highly important that they are kept up-to-date and are carried out by a competent person or organisation.

But what arethe different fire evacuation strategies and when should they be applied?

Stay Put

The ‘StayPut’ principle has been widely applied since the 1960s and is still used inmany blocks of flats today. Generally, the Stay Put policy is designed to workbest in purpose-built blocks of flats. It works by allowing residents to remainin their own flats in relative safety in the event of a fire in another flat orcommunal area.

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) supports a ‘StayPut’ policy wherever possible as it reflects the building regulationrequirement that each flat should be its own fire-resisting compartment –therefore effective compartmentation is key for this strategy.

A ‘Stay Put’ Policy involves the following approach:

• When a fire occurs within a flat, the occupantsalert others in the flat, make their way out of the building and call for thefire and rescue service;
• If a fire starts in the common areas, allpersons in these areas make their way out of the building and call the fire andrescue service;
• All residents who are in their flat and are notaffected by the fire are expected to Stay Put until directed by the fire andrescue service.

Simultaneous Evacuation

Alternatively, where compartmentation cannot be confirmed ordesigned into the building to support a Stay Put policy, SimultaneousEvacuation will often be recommended and adopted. For this to be applied, alarmand detection systems should be suitable to alert all residents and allow themto evacuate in a timely manner.

Phased Evacuation Policy

Furthermore, if you manage a tall and complex residentialbuilding, it is likely that the ‘Stay Put’ policy will not be appropriate.Therefore, if there is a whole building smoke and fire alarm in place, phasedevacuation policy may be put in place. This means, evacuating only those atimmediate risk first (usually floor of origin and sometimes floor above orbelow) then allow people not at immediate risk to delay starting theirevacuation.

For further advice or guidance, please get in touch.