Digital Fire Safety Plans: Long Overdue Benefits to Building Owners & Public Safety

Fire safety plans are required for most buildings and occupancies, and a single copy of that plan is required to be provided to the arriving fire services when they arrive at your building.

It is these plans, that provide a tactical edge to arriving fire services in the event of an emergency in your building. That tactical edge positively impacts both occupant and firefighter safety, and operations, resulting in all of those benefits being passed onto the building Owner.

While this paper based system has been around for years, both building owners and fire services know their is a better way - and there is. We’ve all known for years that during an active fire, multiple copies of the floor plans are needed - yet only one is avail to fire services. There is a long history of first responders needing instant, relevant, and consistent information to support response. Now, thanks to a public safety initiaitve born in Ontario, over 450 high-rise buildings in the Greater Toronto Area have digitized their building fire safety plans. The process is simple, inexpensive and accessible to all, and the benefits are shared across the entire community.

There are several key benefits to maintaining a professional “digital” fire safety plan;

Digital Fire Safety Plans: Building Owner / Property Manager Benefits

It’s the law. Fire safety plans are required by Fire Code for most buildings in Ontario, and must be reviewed and updated at least annually. Once properly developed, approved and implemented, fire safety plans provide valuable building fire safety information for occupants, property managers, and owners  and provide the foundation of your building’s risk management program.

A professional fire safety plan provides detailed instructions on the many requirements of the fire code, which owners need to comply with in respect to daily, weekly, monthly and annual test and inspections of building life safety systems and equipment. Now, with digital fire safety plans, building Owners and staff are provided a detailed digital checklist, that meets both the fire safety plan and Fire code requirements. If they are late in completing this inspection, they are reminded. If staff don’t complete the inspection, the building Manager is auto notified.

Another direct benefit to digitizing your fire safety plan is that the fire code checklists, automatically update when the fire code changes in your Province - never missing a compliance component again.

A long standing concern in the property management industry is fire safety companies going out of business, and never finding the author of your original fire safety plan again - costing more money ! When a fire safety plan is digitized, the building owner receives a high ROI in reducing costs by never redeveloping the plan again - Only revising and updating the plan - reducing costs.

Digital Fire Safety Plans: Benefits to First Responders and Emergency Services

Building fire safety plans must be approved by the authority having jurisdiction, in most cases this would be local fire services. Approved fire safety plans are required to be stored in the building’s fire safety plan box at the main entrance to the building.  These plans, provide tactical reference tools to arriving emergency services to effectively respond in a timely manner to building emergencies.

The fire safety plan provides important tactical information on life safety systems, stairwell types, smoke control systems available, floor plan drawings, isolation points for sprinklers, HVAC, gas and electrical isolation points and more.  Having rapid access to this information by fire services not only saves lives, but significantly reduces property damages. Fire Safety plans that have gone digital, can provide secure access to emergency services - on the way to the building - saving at times an upwards of 17 minutes.

With a digital fire safety plan, municipal emergency services or 911 - can overcome a vast array of first responder safety and operational challenges - minutes faster - with access to any of the following in under 3 seconds;

- Occupancy Type, Emergency Access Codes, Arial photographs, and more

- Owner / Tenant Emergency Contact Information

- Overview of Life Safety Systems Installed

- Stairwell types, smoke control systems available, perimeter and roof access

- floor plan drawings, isolation points for sprinklers, HVAC, gas and electrical isolation points

- List and location of Persons Requiring Special Assistance

• Its important to note, that any benefit to the fire services or first responders - is a direct benefit to the occupants of the building.

A digital Fire Safety Plan provides secure access to any 911 service in Canada - rapidly addressing long standing and well documented response challenges. 9-1-1 operators triage critical incident calls and support Fire, EMS and police services. Operators work to gather as much information as possible to help ensure both public and responder safety. Their role is critical to the delivery of emergency services but relies on the information provided by callers, who themselves are impacted by the emergency.

Currently, these operators do not have access to critical information regarding the building and persons needing assistance. Equipping these personnel with data to support their work can improve response times, inform key decision-making, and build awareness of hazards before responders have even arrived on scene.

Most critical building information is currently available only via Fire Safety Plan box onsite - if the box is accessible and intact. It is typically accessed “later” arriving fire crews, and as the formats are inconsistent takes time to interpret and understand.

Digitizing your fire safety plan, provides free access to all 9-1-1 / Dispatch operators. It provides objective, validated information for buildings across Canada - filling this critical information gap. This information can be accessed by 9-1-1 operators immediately, consistently, and in direct support of the real-time needs of site responders.

The critical benefit of the technology used to digitize fire safety plans for arriving first responders is the provision of instant, relevant, and consistent information to support response. In addition to the fire response, fire safety plans have also been widely utilized as a tactical tool for specialty response teams such as the municipal police services and Emergency Task Forces. Certain building information and detailed floor plans may be used to provide rapid support to first responders in the event of active violent incidents, suspicious packages and criminal acts in both workplace facilities and residential buildings.

Your building Fire Safety Plan, digital or not, is a vital tool used to protect your building occupants and arriving first responders. 

Jason Reid is Senior Advisor for National Life Safety Group, an industry leading consulting firm specializing in infrastructure protection, fire safety and emergency management across Canada and around the world. www.nationallifesafetygroup.ca