Evacuation Planning

Evacuation planning is a safety exercise carried out by businesses and organisations. This kind of planning is designed to get people out of a building or area in the event of a major incident that puts them in danger. This kind of planning can be undertaken from the smallest of businesses up to a governmental level where plans may need to be put into place to evacuate whole cities and regions.

One of the best known and simplest evacuation planning events is the fire or bomb drill. Here, a company, building or organisation will have a plan in place in the event of a fire or bomb scare. So, the plan will tell employees where they should go if an alarm rings and what they should and shouldn’t do. For example, each employee may be told which route to take to exit the building and where to meet up outside so a headcount can be taken. And, they may be told not to use the lifts to exit the building.

Most companies with an evacuation plan - no matter how small - will have regular practises to make sure that everyone knows what to do in an emergency. They will also usually nominate a Fire or Evacuation Officer from within their staff who takes responsibility for making sure that everyone leaves the building and gathers in the designated safe location.

Larger organisations such as hospitals, for example, have much more complex evacuation plans. Here, not everyone will be capable of simply leaving the building and gathering outside so staff will have regular drills on what actions to take in the event of an evacuation.