Three Bethesda Metro Center

Tenant Handbook

Fire Safety Plan

Introduction

 

Brookfield prides itself on providing outstanding prevention measures to ensure the safety and security of its tenants, visitors and employees. This is accomplished through fire and life safety education, as well as planning for emergencies. It is important that each tenant and their employees be familiar with emergency exits, equipment, evacuation plans, and well informed on all issues related to fire and life safety.

 

Tenants are given materials and are educated in response procedures for both fire and non-fire related emergencies. Fire Drills are conducted twice a year and an emergency action plan (EAP) drill is conducted annually.

 

Each floor's fire safety team personnel receive additional training in the approved Fire Safety and Emergency Action Plan written specifically for their building by the Emergency Action Plan Director or his/her designee.

 

We provide additional fire life safety information for tenants via our on line training website (www.rjwestmoretraining.com) where a customized video describes all of the buildings safety features.

 

In addition, our tenants can review their knowledge of the fire life safety topics by answering site specific questions provided in the RJ Westmore On Line Life Safety Training website.

 

In conjunction with security consultants, we also hold seminars for building staff and tenant representatives. Seminar topics include fire life safety, bomb threat preparedness, and other personal security related issues.

 

The entire evacuation of high-rise buildings in an emergency cannot be accomplished in a short period of time and the number of people occupying a high-rise building is too great to permit everyone to leave at the same time. During a fire condition, this potentially dangerous situation could cause a panic and hamper firefighting and rescue operations. In fact, during most fire situations within a high-rise building, an entire building evacuation will not be necessary or feasible.

 

The fire and life safety systems installed in high-rise buildings today, including automatic fire sprinkler protection, are designed to control a fire and therefore lessen the need to evacuate all occupants. In a typical scenario, the occupants of the fire floor and the floor immediately above it should use a safe exit stairs to descend to a floor level that is at least two floors below the fire floor, and await further instruction from fire officials.

 

Fire Safety Plan

 

The purpose of the Fire Safety Plan is to establish a systematic, safe and orderly method of evacuating an area (or areas) within the building in the least possible time, to an area of safety. The plan also provides instructions for the use of available fire appliances, including fire extinguishers, manual pull station alarms and fire warden telephones for the controlling or extinguishing of fire and the safeguarding of human life.

 

The Fire Safety Plan relies on technology, including fire alarm and communication systems, smoke detectors, sprinklers, door releases, other safety mechanisms, and on highly trained building staff and tenant employees to assist with evacuation/ relocation of occupants. Documentation relative to the life safety features within the building i.e., copies of the Certificate of Occupancy, floor plans, riser diagrams for standpipe/sprinkler systems, elevator and stair identification charts, are posted in the fire safety plan.

 

The objective of the Fire Safety Plan is to provide proper education through a continuing employee indoctrination and written program for all occupants, to assure the prompt reporting of fire, the response to fire alarms as designated, and the immediate initiation of fire safety procedures to safeguard life and contain the fire until the arrival of the Fire department.

 

Each tenant on every floor must appoint a responsible individual to the position of Floor Warden. This appointment will ensure that the floor is under the direction of a designated floor warden, who is familiar with the safety plan.