Fire safety plan

A fire safety plan is required by all North American national, state and provincial fire codes based on building use or occupancy types. Generally, the owner of the building is responsible for the preparation of a fire safety plan. Buildings with elaborate emergency systems may require the assistance of a fire protection consultant. After the plan has been prepared, it must be submitted to the Chief Fire Official or authority having jurisdiction for approval. Once approved, the owner is responsible for implementing the fire safety plan and training all staff in their duties. It is also the owner’s responsibility to ensure that all visitors and staff are informed of what to do in case of fire. During a fire emergency, a copy of the approved fire safety plan must be available for the responding fire departments use.
fire safety plan structure
*Key contact information
*Utility services (Including shut-off valves for water, gas and electric)
*Access issues
*Dangerous stored materials
*Location of people with special needs
*Connections to sprinkler system
*Layout, drawing, and site plan of building
*Maintenance schedules for life safety systems
*Personnel training and fire drill procedures
Use of fire safety plans
Fire safety plans are a useful tool for fire fighters to have because they allow them to know critical information about a building that they may have to go into. Using this, fire fighters can locate and avoid potential dangers such as hazardous material (hazmat) storage areas and flammable chemicals. In addition to this, fire safety plans can also provide specialized information that, in the case of a hospital fire, can provide information about the location of things like the nuclear medicine ward. In addition to this, fire safety plans also greatly improve the safety of fire fighters. According to FEMA, 16 percent of all fire fighter deaths in 2002 occurred due to a structural collapse or because the fire fighter got lost. Fire safety plans can outline any possible structural hazards, as well as give the fire fighter knowledge of where he is in the building.
Fire safety plans in the fire code
In North America alone, there are around 8 million buildings that legally require a fire safety plan, be it due to provincial or state law. Not having a fire safety plan for buildings which fit the fire code occupancy type can result in a fine, and they are required for all buildings, such as commercial, industrial, assembly, etc.
Advances in fire safety planning
As previously stated, a copy of the approved fire safety plan shall be available for the responding fire department. This, however, is not always the case. Up until now, all fire plans were stored in paper form in the fire department. The problem with this is that sorting and storing these plans is a challenge, and it is difficult for people to update their fire plans. As a result, only half of the required buildings have fire plans, and of those, only around 10 percent of are up-to-date.<ref name="Building Strategies 2007"/> This problem has been solved through the introduction of digital fire plans. These fire plans are stored in a database and can be accessed wirelessly on site by firefighters and are much simpler for building owners to update.

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