OFR contributes to evacuation research

Contributing their time to future fire safety and policy, our colleagues Amir and Luis recently volunteered in a high rise evacuation exercise. Here, Luis tells us more… 

Following on from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 1, the Home Office and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) are undertaking research on how the fire and rescue services carry out evacuations of high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs). This is linked to recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) was appointed to deliver the project, and this week, the live testing took place in London – something my colleague Amir and I keenly got involved in.

Our Better Days allowance meant that we could take half a day away from our projects, joining other volunteers and playing the part of residents during the exercises. It helped the researchers record valuable data for the review and development of fire and rescue services best practices for HRRBs across the UK. 

We are acutely aware of the need to collect data to inform evacuation procedures from buildings, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to it. This exercise took place over four days and saw many people volunteer their time to support this important research exercise. 

We hope that the findings play a role in the development of future fire safety policy and procedures.