Office of the Fire Marshal Emergency Building Measures A Guide to Strengthen Emergency Management of High-Rise and High-Risk Buildings

1. Purpose & Scope

An emergency plan should not be developed under the stress associated with an emergency that is already underway - preparation is the key to an effective response. Planning, awareness training and periodic exercises introduced prior to an emergency are essential to improving building supervisory and occupant responses.

This guide is intended primarily to assist building owners, property managers and others who are responsible for emergency management in large buildings including high-rise buildings, those containing a high occupant load and other buildings potentially at risk. Both natural and human-caused risks are addressed in the guide. Types of emergencies range from people trapped in elevators, to earthquakes, to terrorist threats.

Communication between building owners/managers and emergency responders is essential to ensure that the respective roles are clearly understood. This guide stresses the necessity of establishing a planning team to prepare for an emergency and a response team to make key potentially life-saving decisions in an emergency.

Numerous organizations participated in the development of this guide (see Appendix C). It is their hope that this information proves to be a valuable resource to reduce the risk to occupants of these buildings.