Hi Guys,

I'm having to implement a new fire/emergency evacuation procedure for a food manufacturing plant. The issue that has been raised is that production are requesting that a designated few key production personnel are allowed to remain within the building during an alarm (not planned drill) to shut down production machinery in a controlled manner otherwise there would be a significant loss of product. There is the occassion of false alarms at site and this is the main concern. While i don't have a problem for planned drill scenarios i do have an issue for unscheduled/real time evacuations but fully understand production concerns as well.

If we implemented a system that allowed for identified and key personnel to remain in side the production zones until the ERT has identified the alarm location and confirmed/dismissed a fire would this be an acceptable practice? If no fire/incident is confirmed by ERT than the key production can remain until staff return to factory or if fire confirmed then they are notified immediately to evacuate by nearest fire exit?

Any help would be appreciate guys!

Cheers

You just know that someone is going to say risk assessment don't you... So I will!

There's no absolute answer to this, it depends on so many things. Do you have a staged fire alarm system - i.e. in some instances (smoke detector activation for example) is there a delay before the evacuation sounds? if so could this delay period be used to carry out the shut-down? What is the internal compartmentation of the building like or is it open plan? Are any of the people who would potentially stay inside located on any floor other than the ground floor?

You need to consider the risk that the people who would stay inside might become trapped if there really was a fire. How and where would such a fire be most likely to arise and how would it spread? Are there alternative escape routes if one route became conpromised? Exactly where would the people be and how quickly and easily could they escape from that area if needed? To be honest I'd be reluctant to allow such a policy without very stringent safeguards and time limitations, but obviously I don't know your site.

For example if someone can perform part of the shutdown from a main control panel which is ten feet from the main fire exit then this is a bit different to someone having to go to a control panel on a platform up a flight of steps in the middle of the factory.

Finally can the shut-down process be made automatic when the evacuation alarm sounds, thus avoiding the need to even consider having people stay in the building?