Posted By sandra Has anyone got a ready made fire emergency plan specifically for a residential care home which they wouldn't mind sharing with me? I am writing on at the minute, but would like some guidance on what such a plan should contain.

Posted By Robert. Sandra, last post pretty harsh, but I do agree with the individual. Don't take on the responsibility if you're not at all sure. Your fire plan would need to related to the size of care home, persons involved, persons in care, systems etc etc. You should really ask the fire service for more advice, or even your local authority. Good luck.

Posted By cara Sandra - I don't have an actual plan to help sorry but perhaps this may be useful... It's a good practice example - found doing a google search. http://www.firesafetytoo.../goodpracticeexample.htm

Posted By Scott Fisher I thought the idea of these forums were to discuss issues and help others solve problems they me be experiencing. Not everyone can be an expert in all fields. A little more tact would be nice in replying to threads. Sandra, I can't help directly, but will speak to a collegue in our social care section to see if they have one.

Posted By markl Morning Sandra I don't have a plan for you but I can provide a few pointers (used to work in this environment). When I asked the fire brigade for advice on evacuating a care home I didn't find their advice very useful. They didn't seem to grasp that trying to get elderly infirm residents, both mental and physical, out of bed at night was easier said than done (and to be fair it is not where their expertise lie). Our local fire officers advice was to start the evacuation, their priority was tackling the blaze not evacuating but they obviously wouldn't leave people if they were in danger. Usually you can expect the fire brigade to be on site within 5 minutes and speaking from experience, depending on the abilities and layout of the building you may have only got one resident up in that time (and sod's law being what it is a fire is more likely to start at night and thats when you have fewer staff and residents are at their least mobile). It is unlikely that you will be able to evacuate all residents from an area prior to the fire brigade arriving so starting the evacuation is the key, prioritise - move residents nearest the fire first, each room should be a fire compartment in it's own right (they were at ours) so this allows you not much but a little margin for error. NB - there was a rumour amongst our managers that a residents door could be propped open if a risk assessment was in place. The fire brigade advised that this wasn't the case and all doors must be shut at night (not sure if this was an isolated rumour or not so just to advise). As the previous posts have suggested you need to look at the individual care home. The principle of progressive horizontal evacuation can be used in most care homes but you need to familiarise yourself with the fire certificate plan (if you still have it). This will show you where the fire compartments are and once you know this you know where you move residents to. If you have hospital beds and your doors are wide enough you can wheel the residents straight into a neighbouring compartment. As for documenting the plan I would suggest a simple flow chart - A alarm sounds - B ring fire brigade etc etc. This can then be communicated staff either through team meetings or regular walk rounds. If I've not been particularly clear please get back to me.

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Posted By Samantha Beale Hi, did you manage to get an emergency plan, if so would you mind forwarding it on to me so i can use it as a template please Thank you