Vertical Phased Evacuation Large complexes may require evacuation being done floor by floor. It is usually done by evacuating the floors that has the fire and the floor above it. Other floors will then be evacuated one at a time. This will help to prevent congestion on the escape routes. The fire warning system should be able to transmit two signals, a warning and an evacuation or appropriate voice messages. Horizontal Phased Evacuation This is widely used in hospitals and care homes. The floors may be divided into fire-resisting compartments and the occupants moved from the compartment affected by fire to the adjacent compartment. This may happen several times and the severity of the fire may eventually lead to a vertical evacuation. This may require additional precautions such as voice alarm systems. Staged Evacuation The area that is closest to the fire is evacuated and the other areas are put on standby and wait further instructions. This evacuation is quite common in high-rise buildings. Staged evacuations will also prevent congestion on stairs and escape routes. This evacuation may require a more sophisticated means of communication being used. Larger buildings using these protection strategies are frequently equipped with voice-communication fire alarm systems, which allow either a live or recorded voice announcement, or both, to provide direction to occupants. The message may say occupants should remain in place and await further instructions, move to a designated safe location in the building, or evacuate the building to the outside. Actions required when evacuating members of the public The evacuation of visitors or members of the public can introduce further risks to the situation, in that such persons will not have the familiar knowledge of the premises and escape routes as offered to employees. Again, correct risk assessment should provide methods of control and management of the risk. The use and size of the premises, will have a great influence on what methods of control are deployed, for example: In something like a small office environment, the fact that the visitor will perhaps be only meeting with one person and staying with that person, then, the simple method of 'signing-in and signing-out' would probably be sufficient given that the person would be guided from the building by the employee. This could be further supplemented by the use of an information card given to the visitor, information on the card would be such as what the evacuation sounder actually sounds like, evacuation routes and assembly points. The situation in a 'public' place for example a pub, introduces the need for other arrangements, clearly no one is going to sign into a pub. A method used to record capacity is 'head counting' . A handheld counter is used which records the number of people entering and leaving the premises. Evacuation in such a situation as this relies very much on the staff of the pub to act as Fire Wardens and Fire Marshals to guide members of the public away from any risk and to the appropriate exits. An extended example of this would be in a large meeting place such as a football ground in which 'Stewards' are specifically employed to manage the crowd, in particular during an evacuation. The number of people present can be ascertained from the ticket and turnstile sales. For evacuation on this scale the system of staged or phased
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