COVER STORY
A SAFE EXIT
Evac+Chair provides expert advice to ensure safe evacuation in retail environments.
When it comes to shopping centres, which attract a host of visitors with differing levels of mobility, ensuring safe evacuation for all can be extremely challenging. Careful planning for emergency processes and procedures is, therefore, essential.
The changing nature of risk also impacts retail environments, as improved accessibility, changing workforce demographics and even the increased risk of terrorism, brings about new challenges which can then affect the effectiveness of evacuation procedures. Alongside these developments, fire is still a prevalent risk, with retail fires accounting for around 10% of all ‘large loss fires’.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Whether you’re an employer, landlord, facilities manager, health and safety manager or centre manager, you have a responsibility to ensure the safety of all visitors and staff on site. This includes making sure everyone has access to a safe means of evacuation should an emergency situation arise.
Often, individual shops will need to demonstrate health and safety compliance to centre management teams, including regular risk assessments. However, it is the centre management’s duty of care to ensure all communal areas of the centre – including service yards, car parks, entrances and exits – all meet regulatory, health and safety compliance.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (2005) requires the ‘responsible person’, for any non- domestic building or premises, to complete regular fire risk assessments and implement any subsequent recommendations to improve safety and mitigate the risk of fire. The responsible person is also required to identify any persons at risk, such as those with mobility, visual or hearing impairments, and to implement the appropriate measures in place to safeguard their wellbeing in an emergency situation.
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The Fire Safety Order also requires those responsible to provide all employees with sufficient knowledge of the procedures which should be applied in the event of an emergency. This includes organising training to ensure employees are able to act on this knowledge, quickly and safely, should an emergency occur. Regular evacuation drills can help to educate staff on your procedures, as they promote familiarity with the relevant emergency processes whilst also allowing them to practice using any necessary equipment.
In addition to the regulations surrounding fire safety, the Equality Act (2010) requires all public buildings to be equally accessible to people of all levels of mobility.
Ensuring compliance, whilst protecting shoppers and staff
Safe evacuation planning can be complex. There are, however, some practical steps to help those responsible safeguard the wellbeing of shoppers and staff, while remaining compliant with the various health and safety regulations.
1. Undertake regular risk assessments
Legislation requires the ‘responsible person’ to carry out regular risk assessments for any business premises. This includes shopping centres and all stores within them. Your centre’s risk assessment will provide information, including:
• The relevant safety risks pertaining to the centre • The people who are at risk.
• Recommendations to control, mitigate or, where possible, remove the risks.
2. Plan carefully for safe evacuation
Take time to plan your centre’s evacuation procedures and communicate these clearly throughout the centre. This will help to keep your processes as effective as possible, improving the safety of visitors and staff throughout the centre.
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