Evacuation Drill

On the Swedish Work Environment Authority's website, the following information can be found:

"It is important that all staff members know how to behave during an evacuation alarm. The best way to acquire this knowledge is through regular evacuation drills."

All employees should know what to do in an emergency situation, such as a fire outbreak or a gas leak. This also applies to bomb threats, threats and violence, flooding, and other similar incidents. If an evacuation is necessary, all employees should be able to evacuate quickly and safely. To ensure that everyone knows what to do, employers must establish evacuation procedures. Regular evacuation drills are an effective way to learn what to do in an evacuation situation, but they can be replaced by information if it provides equivalent knowledge. It is important that the information is tailored to everyone, including new employees, individuals with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and individuals with disabilities.

Examples of preventive measures to facilitate evacuation include:

• Employees need to know what to do during an evacuation.
• Evacuation routes need to be clearly signposted and designed for easy use.
• There should be at least two evacuation routes as a general rule.
• Evacuation routes must not be blocked or locked in a way that makes them difficult to open.
• The risk of injuries decreases the earlier the danger is detected, such as through warning alarms.
• Appropriately placed fire extinguishers can reduce the risk of injuries.

Accessibility

All employees should be able to evacuate the workplace. If there are employees with disabilities, they should also be able to evacuate. In short, if you can enter, you should also be able to exit. For example, there may be a need for special evacuation lifts that can be used even in the event of a fire or temporary evacuation areas if the evacuation routes are designed in a way that prevents self-evacuation, such as having stairs in the evacuation routes.

A temporary evacuation area is a location where employees who cannot fully evacuate on their own can wait for assistance. The area should be well protected against smoke and heat.

Also, consider that doors with door closers may be difficult or impossible to open for individuals with reduced mobility. Alarm buttons to activate evacuation alarms should be positioned so that individuals using wheelchairs can easily reach them.

About Our Evacuation Drill

Before conducting the drill, we will plan on-site with a responsible person from your organization on how to evacuate your premises. We will inspect your facilities to ensure compliance with the accessibility requirements recommended by the Swedish Work Environment Authority. Then, we will go through different scenarios of evacuation with your staff and simulate a fire situation where the staff needs to evacuate. The drill will be conducted as realistically as possible, with or without smoke.

We will observe how the staff handles the fire situation, and a debriefing session will be conducted after the completion of the drill.

The evacuation drill will be documented, and the procedure will be incorporated into your Systematic Work Environment Management (SBA).

Please contact us for a quotation.

What do laws and regulations say about evacuation?

The Law on "Protection against Accidents" (LSO 2003:778)
The Regulation "Systematic Work Environment Management" (AFS 2001:01)

The Regulation "Workplace Design" (AFS 2020:1)