.png)
Evacuation Diagrams and Zone Block Plans
Plans are an essential fire safety measure that display information pertaining to the building, in the event of a fire or other emergency.
We have plenty of experience in the evacuation/block plan creation process, and can help guide you and your workplace through it.
It begins with a site inspection, in which we detail all relevant fire safety measures and ensure the floor plans are up to date, so subsequent plans are accurate.
Once complete, we create the plans and review them, by comparing them to the plans and workspace.
Once everyone is happy, we will install the plans in your building, at which point, you are compliant!
An example evacuation plan, from AS 3745.
1
Evacuation Diagrams
Evacuation diagrams are a vital part of any functional fire safety system. Evacuation diagrams depict the building, all relevant fire safety measures, and most importantly, the exits from the building.
As specified by AS 3745-2010, evacuation diagrams must include the following:
-
Extinguishers, hydrants, hose reels, blankets and all relevant fire safety equipment.
-
Designated exits, coloured green.
-
Appropriate titles, such as 'Evacuation Diagram' and 'You Are Here'.
-
FIPs, WIPs, ECPs and MCPs.
-
Validity dates, legends and assembly areas.
-
They also have minimum size and height requirements, and can contain a number of optional elements to clarify the evacuation process, such as a path of travel to the exit.
As you can see, designing evacuation diagrams is an exhaustive process, and ensuring all elements are up to scratch according to AS 3745-2010 is tiresome. In that case, if your building needs evacuation diagrams created, contact us and we can sort it out for you!
2
Zone Block Plans (ZBP)
As you may have guessed, ZBPs are slightly different to evacuation diagrams, and chances are, you've never seen one. The only time you need one is if your building has a fire panel, in which case, a ZBP must be immediately adjacent to the panel.
Fire panels break large buildings down into zones, and each zone contains a number of smoke/heat detectors. For example, Zone 1 may be the ground floor of your building, Zone 2 may be level 1, and Zone 3 may be the 'break glass alarm' on the panel itself, but it can be organised in any way. That way, if a fire occurs, firefighters can look at the fire panel, determine which detector alarmed first, and use the ZBP to locate the origin of the fire.
Like evacuation diagrams, ZBPs have a number of compulsory components, all of which are detailed in AS 1670.1-2015. These are:
-
The layout of the building, and colour-coded zones which outline areas covered in each zone.
-
The location of all fire indicating equipment and fire suppression systems.
-
The MSB location, the date of installation and revision, among other details.
-
Not to mention, certain requirements regarding location, font size and orientation.
Once again, designing an appropriate zone block plan is time-consuming and better left to professionals. Plus, a good zone block plan looks great and will be extremely useful in the event of a fire.
