Hi All Wondering if anyone can help me? I work for a large company in a nice big open plan office which has 4 exits out of the building to down external staircases on each floor. The building empties within 3 minutes. I have 4 marshals on each floor. I have been trying to organise a planned evacuation for the past few weeks, however the client i work for keeps cancelling it if 1 marshal is off! I feel that we should be going ahead with the evacuation regardless as we cannot guarantee they will all be here. Do you think 4 marshals per floor is enough for a building with 3 floors and 600 people in it which is open plan that evacuates in under 3 minutes? The client would like me to make it madatory for PA's to become evac marshals, however i am uncomfortable forcing people to take on this role, where do we stand with enforcing this? Any advise or help would be grateful Thanks H

Agree with Juan, get the alarm going!

i would go along with Jane on this you should know before hand what the minimum number of fire marshals required to clear each floor. if you need 4 fire marshals to clear each floor then clearly you don't have enough as you need to make allowances for when they may be off on holiday or sick. So the client is right in not allowing to fire drill to go ahead as you wouldn't have enough fire Marshal's SO THEREFORE YOU MUST TRAIN MORE. If you only need two fire marshals to clear each floor then even with one of you have enough so the evacuation practice can take place. You can practice the evacuation without having to evacuate the whole building to practise and ensure you have enough fire marshal's. just agree a set time that the fire marshals will carry out a sweep of the building and report to who is ever in control at the assembly point this way you can ensure everyone has swept THEIR patch and ensure no areas where missed. You should know how many fire marshals you need to sweep the building and either documented or maps showing who is to search what areas (the main office area, toilets, walk in cupboards, meeting rooms, kitchens or kitchenettes etc etc) to ensure the building is clear and who they report to at the assembly area confirming the building is clear or any other issues. Phil

if you worked on the basis that each floor has 4 significant areas (4 fire marshal patches) then in total allowing for holidays and sickness then you need 15. assuming you could evenly spread the fire marshals across the 3 floors or you could ensure spare fire wardens clear floors that might only have 2 fire wardens on one floor for any reason. Phil

Little disconcerting that there is repetition about the marshals 'sweeping their patch'. I would hope that this isn't made a mandatory function and as such present a risk the marshals' safety.

Squash, ta for the link, most useful. We are just evaluating how many marshals we need in each of 13 Healthcare premises with vulnerable people, listed structures and all sorts to contend with. The calculator is a useful guide and reality check, John