How to Create a Fire Emergency Plan for Your Office (Guide)

When it comes to fire safety, preparedness is everything. 

The more organised you, your site and key personnel are, the safer your office will be, for everyone on site. 

As a result, an essential element of office fire safety is a fire emergency plan. These plans are designed to contain all details about an office’s fire safety measures, in one convenient, clear location. 

Below, we’ve shared our complete guide to creating a fire emergency plan for an office, including what needs to be in place to ensure a business adheres to all relevant fire safety regulations and standards.

What is included in an office fire emergency plan?

An office fire emergency plan is designed to act as a central, go-to document for all fire safety information. 

As such, an office fire emergency plan must include: 

• Evacuation procedures 
• Exit routes and assembly points
• Evacuation procedures for individuals with disabilities 
• Procedures for checking that everyone has safely left the building (in the event of a fire)
• Plans for fire drills (including what happens during a drill, and how often they take place) 
• A full fire risk assessment (covering all fire risks on your site, and how those risks are being mitigated) 
• A breakdown of all your site’s fire prevention measures
• The details of your site’s fire alarm systems (including their testing and maintenance schedules) 
• Documentation of other key fire safety equipment and their location 
• Details of how you are ensuring compliance with fire safety regulations (more on this below) 
• Staff safety training plans and a full training log (we’ve outlined our recommendations in more detail below)
• Contact information for key personnel – particularly the Responsible Person for your site – and a plan for communication in the event of a fire 

What office fire regulations do you need to consider? 

In the UK, businesses are subject to a number of government fire safety regulations. These are designed to ensure the safety of staff, personnel and any site visitors. 

The main piece of fire safety regulation that you will need to consider – particularly when creating your fire emergency plan – is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. 

Under this regulation, all businesses are obligated to complete a fire risk assessment for their site. It also requires businesses to identify a Responsible Person for site fire safety, and to put suitable fire precautions in place, in order to mitigate any risks that the assessment identified. 

It also specifies that the business must ensure their staff are suitably trained on fire safety, including conducting regular fire drills for their staff, and training their staff on how to correctly use fire extinguishers.

If you’d like to find out more about the details of UK fire safety regulations for businesses, visit the GOV.UK website. 

The benefits of office fire marshal and extinguisher training

Implementing staff training programmes is one of the most effective ways to improve your site’s fire safety standards. 

By training your staff on fire safety and the correct use of fire safety equipment, you can help your staff to feel more safe and confident, minimise the risk of a fire escalating and becoming dangerous, and promote a culture of safety and conscientiousness at work. 

At Target Fire Protection, we offer both fire marshal and fire extinguisher training. These are ideal for office staff, particularly if they have been named as a Responsible Person for your site.

Our fire marshall training programmes include: 

• What steps to take, in the event of an emergency 
• How to conduct a site evacuation 
• How to check that everyone on site has exited safely 
• How to assist anyone with a disability, ensuring their safe evacuation 
• What information the emergency services will need, both before and upon their arrival 

Our fire extinguisher training programmes include training on how to use different types of fire extinguishers, and how to assess whether a fire is safe to tackle with an extinguisher. 

Target Fire Protection are fire safety experts, with over 25 years of experience in the fire protection industry. To find out more about office fire safety best practices, or to arrange for our team to deliver training to your site, don’t hesitate to get in touch.