PROTECTING HIGH-RISES: THE ROLE OF THE FIRE SAFETY DIRECTOR
Editor’s note: Lack of building personnel intimately familiar with electrical and mechanical systems increased the problems of an already difficult firefight at One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia. The following is an example of how one city bridged this gap in high-rise fire protection.
Local Law 5 in New York City requires high-rise structures to have more than electromechanical systems for fire protection: A fire safety director must be on site to make sure fire protection systems are maintained, order evacuations, and meet responding units on their arrival.
To be considered for the position of fire safety director, a candidate must have five years of experience in firefighting, fire prevention, fire protection, building maintenance, or an equivalent and must take a six-week course covering such topics as laws, fire science, communications, fire extinguisher operations, and fire safety plans. (Firefighters often consider the job for a second career because of the requirements.)
After passing a 50-question fire department test, the person receives a certificate of completion. Within die first six months in the new position, the fire safety director must demonstrate knowledge of the building during a fire department inspection.
The fire safety director’s duties are not all spelled out in Local Law 5, explains Sandy Sansevero, director of fire safety services administration for New York City’s Rockefeller Center and a retired FDNY lieutenant, in WNYF, an FDNY publication, in his article “The Fire Safety Director” (WNYF, 1st Issue, 1990). Following are what Sansevero considers some unwritten, yet essential, tasks:
- Be familiar with the building’s written fire safety plan providing for fire drill and evacuation procedures in accordance with the fire prevention code. The incident commander will ask for specific details in
- a fire situation: Where are the standpipe risers? Sprinkler shutoff valves? Are there access stairs between floors? How does the HVAC system work? Where are the fans?
- Select qualified building service employees for a fire brigade and organize, train, and supervise the brigade. Brigades help evacuate occupants and fight incipient fires. Choosing members calls for being a good judge of character: Does the person you choose remain calm in an emergency, have good common sense, know the fire protection systems and floor layouts, and have a willingness to serve? Then the director must train members.
- Be responsible for the fire brigade’s availability and state of readiness. Choosing the right members will eliminate this responsibility.
- Be responsible for the designation and training of fire wardens. Fire wardens check out alarms and inform the fire safety director when there is a problem. Then they evacuate the area if necessary. ‘Hiere must be a fire warden for each floor and a deputy fire warden for each floor and tenancy. In addition, any tenancy with more than 7,500 square feet of occupiable space must have a deputy warden for each 7,500 square feet or part. Scheduling fire warden training can be a difficult task because of tenants’ conflicting schedules.
- Be responsible for checking daily the availability of the fire wardens and deputy fire wardens, and see that up-to-date organization charts identifying the wardens are posted. Lobby sign-in books and spot-check phone calls are two ways to do this, since there will be so many people to check on.
- Notify the owner or other person having charge of the building when any designated individual is neglecting responsibilities contained in the fire safety plan so that the matter can be brought to the attention of the individual’s em-
- ployer. Notify the fire department if the situation is not corrected. It is better for the fire department to serve a violation order or summons titan to risk a fire and a loss of life.
- Be responsible for the training and activities of the building evacuation supervisor. The fire safety director or deputy must be in the building during working hours, when the building is occupied by 100 people above or below street level, or when more than 500 people are in the entire building. Otherwise a building evacuation supervisor, who has the same responsibilities as the fire safety director in an emergency, must be on duty.
- Conduct fire and evacuation drills. The fire safety director must communicate with evacuating occupants through the public address system to control their movements and keep them out of the way of advancing firefighters. Drills ensure that evacuations run smoothly (they’re required once every three months for the first two years after a building opens and once every six months after that). This is where well-trained wardens are an asset.
- In the event of a fire, report to the fire command station to supervise, provide for, and coordinate the following: notifying the fire department, manning the fire command station, directing evacuation, reporting conditions to arriving fire department units, and explaining the operation of the fire command station. At the fire command station the fire safety director can determine the floor of the alarm, the type of alarm, whether the alarm has been sent to a central station, and sometimes whether HVAC fans are on or off. From the station it also is possible to silence any unnecessary alarms that will interfere with broadcasting over the public address system. A copy of the building’s fire safety plan is kept there, as are data sheets for detailing important size-up information to give to responding units.
