Given the Regulation is written in terms of building safety, it is absolutely necessary that all high occupancy buildings need to be updated to new compliance requirements. Body Corporates, Other managing entities and building Owners are responsible under the regulation to take necessary action to achieve compliance.

This does not negate responsibilities that also apply to individual tenants/occupiers in multi tenanted buildings.

The goal is for the building managing entity, whether it be a body corporate, owner or other, to liaise with all individual occupiers or tenants in the interest of assisting individual occupiers/tenants in creating diagrams, plans and procedures by every individual tenant to complement the overall building diagrams, plans, and procedures, thereby achieving a standard coherent level of compliance and emergency preparedness throughout the building.

The implementation of the requirement of the newly introduced role of Fire Safety Adviser is also mandatory, required in a building determined to be a high occupancy building as outlined within the regulation.

Keep in mind that apart from existing legislation, safety preparedness structures and the addition of a Fire Safety Adviser, there are three main areas that need to be addressed individually on a site by site basis.

These are
1/ Emergency Evacuation Diagrams, also commonly called Fire Exit Maps or Signs
2/ Evacuation Plans, which are NOT maps, are a separate document and are mandatory
3/ Emergency Evacuation Procedures, in many cases taking the form of a manual, which is a comprehensive Procedure Document to cover ALL aspects of Emergency and Evacuation Management Procedures.

Having existing evacuation diagrams does not by any means guarantee compliance. The regulation imposed stricter requirements these diagrams must adhere to. This may trigger an update of your site diagrams to achieve compliance.

Given the vast scope of scenarios that this applies to, we recommend you visit our website where you can view the regulation, legislation, and keep up to date with our blog service.

We are updating our website to include topics detailing explanatory articles on parts of the regulation, and will soon have a free downloadable self assessment guide which you may use to inspect your own building to ascertain if action is required to achieve compliance. There is also a guide prepared by QFRS available from our website which details many scenarios whilst clarifying what is required to achieve compliance for each of these.

Please email us or call us at any time for assistance with your individual requirements, alternatively post a question on our blog. This is a fantastic way to share information with others in the community.

We thank you for reading this information, for participating via your enquiries, and happily encourage any query in that we may assist.

info [at] evacservices [dot] com [dot] au
http://www.evacservices.com.au