Rank: Super forum user 
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At a safety committee meeting a rep informed us thet it is 'Law' that a building must be evacuated within 5 minutes. Not surprisingly she was unable to quote which particular law!
Are there any specific guidelines on this? I am taking it as read that it will depend on occupation, construction, size of building etc but would welcome some pointers.
I seem to recall something about a fire in a theatre many years ago that established the need for a minimum evacuation time but cannot bring it to mind.
Ta
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Rank: Super forum user
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Not sure there is a 'law' regarding times to evacuate. There are places that do not evacuate fully unless it is absolutely necessary. Such places rely on progressive horizontal evacuation to a place of relative safety and only fully evacuate if the fire worsens to a degree that warrants a full evac.
Regarding the theatre senario I understand that in the past (Victorian times) the recommended evac time from a theatre used to be 2.5 minutes. This was the time that a theatre band took to play the first verse of the National Anthem which enabled/encouraged people to rise from their seats, leave calmly and also give reasonable time for the band to follow. Whether or not there is any truth in this I cannot say.
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Rank: Forum user
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If it is any use, we recently had a visit from the Fire Service to our training centre, a building comprising of Office and classroom accomodation on the 2 lower floors and then a further five floors of bedrooms. The main risk being the sleeping risk. Two previous Fire Evacuations were documented as 6 & 7 minutes to evacuate. The Fire Officer suggested that we should be expected to fully evacuate in 3 / 4 minutes from a building of this type.
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Rank: Super forum user
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When you do your 6 monthly fire evacuation drills, time them
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi,
The most common time quoted for low risk premises to evacuate is 2.5 mins, and this has often been taken as a design guide. As already mentioned it’s authority rests more upon legend than fact. During a fire at the Empire Palace theatre in Edinburgh in 1911, the whole audience was reported to have been able to evacuate in the time that it took the orchestra to play "God Save the King, (2.5 mins, even though 10 people died backstage.
Regards
Steve
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Rank: Super forum user
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No prescribed time for evacuation. Why not calculate it based on travel distances, occupancy, number and dimensions of exits. There are premises where an evacuation to a place of ultimate safety does not occur at all
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Rank: Super forum user 
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There are always questions relating to fire evacuation on this forum and I welcome them all as fire is potentially the most serious part of our business as safety professionals.
Regarding speed I would just say organise your evacuation to be as fast as it can safely be.
The way things have gone recently, in Merseyside in particular fire appliance first attendance times have increased, I'm sure in other parts of the country as well. Look at London during the current wave of strikes.
Don't rely on the fire brigade to assist in an emergency just be prepared by planning and practicing.
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Rank: Super forum user
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you gotta love getting thrown these questions at safety meetings kinda referencing some unknown law........as already said its all relative to the size of building, number of people and nature of your business.
No definative time for evac, although its good practice to measure you sites evac times against previous evacs.
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