Reducing Risk

Reducing risk

Anyone familiar with designing, building or managing a property will be familiar with risk.  They will also be keen to manage and minimise this risk.

In the case of an emergency, particularly a fire, every second counts and risk can increase significantly over time. 

When it comes to the alarm sounding and then trying to evacuate a building, several things need to be considered.

This process looks like this:

Firstly, we need to consider people, us, and how we reach to external stimuli, specifically in this case the fire alarm.  We all behave differently depending on the situation.  In an emergency we can take time to realise what we are hearing, decide how we are going to react and then to actually do what we have decided.  This takes time, is slowed by stressful situations and risk increases as this process slows.  Anything that helps speed this up then is a good thing.

Two other critical things to consider are how long you need to get out of the building (the RSET; Required Safe Egress Time – which is generally a fixed amount of time) and how long you have got to get out (the ASET; Available Safe Egress Time – which is variable and generally a reducing amount of time).

Understandably, the ASET minus the RSET must be positive to be safe.  In others words you have long enough to exit the building safely in as many emergency situations as possible.

As such, fire engineers build in a ‘Safety Factor’ something that builds as big a cushion of time as possible between these two numbers.  A contingency for the unanticipated.

This is what Evaclite dynamic signage does.  It helps ensure the maximum difference between the RSET and ASET. 

Not only does it halve decision making time but it also increases the safety margin by increasing the speed and efficiency of the evacuation when compared with conventional signage, whatever the circumstances.

This helps allow for daily life, the bicycle in the corridor, the delivery in the lift lobby or the group of guests being shown round the office. 

It hence reduces risk, makes buildings safer and helps save lives.