Fire Safety Directors

Fire safety directors play an often unheralded, but extremely important, role in protecting skyscrapers and other structures from damage by fire, natural disasters, and human-made disasters. They perform the following duties to keep buildings and their occupants safe:

• Prepare and maintain their building’s emergency evacuation and operations plan and communicate this information to the building’s occupants
• Develop fire safety training programs for deputy fire safety directors, floor warden teams, fire brigade members, and building occupants
• Maintain records that detail the building’s fire protection systems and fire inspections
• Supervise monthly fire and evacuation drills
• Conduct building safety inspections to identify potential fire hazards and impediments to evacuation and access by firefighters
• Check and maintain all fire safety equipment (such as fire extinguishers) to ensure that it is in working order

If a fire is detected, the fire safety director jumps into action and takes the following actions:

• Immediately calls 911 (at some buildings, an automated system automatically notifies the fire department)
• Operates the fire alarm system panel in the lobby’s fire command center (FCC) and contacts the floor fire wardens(s) to investigate the alarm
• Makes voice announcements about the location of the fire and evacuation instructions to the building’s occupants using a two-way voice system
• From the FCC, oversees and supervises floor evacuations in affected areas
• Liaises with fire department personnel upon their arrival at the building; identifies the floor(s) that are affected by the fire; provides information about the building’s layout, fire suppression systems, and special hazards, as well as give master keys and elevator keys, to firefighters; and directs the firefighters to building occupants who need immediate assistance
• Assists the building’s occupants who have been evacuated during a fire and provide status updates to the evacuees
• Communicates with the building’s senior management during the emergency