I have a building (international financial services) which houses several thousands of people during office hours. There are strict fire evac procedures, with fire wardens, fire coordinators, various assembly points, fire drills etc.

But overnight and weekends, the staff numbers reduce to a skeleton staff. The building houses circa 2,500 in the day, but has less than 100 at night - sometimes < 50. To make things worse, the out of hours staffing is irregular in terms of shift pattern and distribution throughout the building. Plus many of the night staff enter and leave the building throughout their shift

Despite several attempts, it is not possible to replicate a version of the daytime strict evac procedures at night/weekends, nothing seems to be working. For example, how to cover a large building with wardens when so few are at work, and those that are, work in teams and do not co-ordinate with each other. Some work isolated and/or alone (one is often alone on one large floorspace), others in groups together. I am struggling to find a suitable system and am currently just leaving night staff to do their own thing which is less than satisfactory

I cannot be alone here. Has anyone here managed to come up with a system for a disparate group of workers, spread over a large almost empty building out of hours. If so, I’d appreciate hearing your example or any ideas.

Is there an entry system (i.e. swpie cards)? Is there 24/7 monitored security in place?

If so, could the security team run with an evac system based around who is on site judging by who has swiped in?

or.....


I would go with a 'one out all out' approach too.

Each department responsible for their own roll call when out the building and someone, (building security?) as the liason for Fire service when they arrive?

(The single pump obviously because it's an AFA and the RA says the PDA only has to be 1 pump now. And that will be short crewed...)

Hmmm, toughie - very similar to something I have never (being brutaly honest here) 100% got to grips with at 2 large sites in the past 15 years.
I have nearly got there many a time but then when it comes to writing it down and ensuring everyone who you have designated a role to has a deputy and a deputy's deputy and...then the bloke at the back shouting 'but what about'......

There is a danger of trying to get to utopia and actually doing nothing at all - I lived somewhere between the 2. Like DSE Regs, you could spend hours and tons of dosh when there are much more pertinent things to focus on.

Keep chipping away but its the SHE Managers 'can of worms' - best of luck

Nick h: We have a swipe system but it is far from 100% reliable, so cannot be relied on for a roll call.

We already ahead of the game & deal with all fire alarm incidents without fire service intervention as we run a time delay staff search system. That is we do not call the fire service to fire alarm incidents until fire is confirmed by a response team (or the time limit is exceeded, double knock, or certain MCPs are activated).

Roshqse - Your system of letting them die wins, and as it costs nothing to implement, it is sure to be accepted without question by my bosses :- )