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Safety at Xavier

Fire Drill Procedure

Procedure for Conducting a Xavier University Fire Drill

The Director of Environmental Health and Safety or their designee will select the building and time for the fire drill. Fire drills are unannounced and only the Building Coordinator or their designee should have prior knowledge of the time and date of the drill.

  • 24 hours prior to the drill
    • Check with the Building Coordinator to insure that no major activities will be interrupted when the drill is conducted (exams, student/family tours, special events, etc.)
    • Check with XU Police to make sure they will be available in sufficient numbers to assist in searching the building
    • Notify Physical Plant that you require their assistance during the drill to monitor the alarm system and address any trouble situations
  • One hour prior to the drill
    • Have the XU Police Dispatcher notify the alarm company to take the fire alarm out of service for the duration of the drill (prevents response by the Cincinnati Fire Department). The Dispatcher also needs to know this information so they can safely ignore a fire and/or intrusion alarm for the building where the drill is being conducted.
    • Also, remind the Dispatcher to notify the alarm company to take the intrusion alarm out of service for the duration of the drill.
    • Notify XU Police Officers to gather at the meeting point in the building 15 minutes prior to the designated time for the drill
    • Remind Physical Plant to have their Maintenance Technician present at the meeting point 15 minutes prior to the designated time for the drill
    • Remind the Dispatcher that you will personally give them the all clear to call the alarms back in service
    • Borrow a 400 MHz series radio and bull horn from XU Police for use during the drill and have your cell phone with you
  • 15 minutes prior to the drill
    • Brief all of those assisting of any special conditions and have them report to their assigned locations, Police Officers at the highest floor they will search, Maintenance Technician at the fire panel
    • Verify with the Police Dispatcher that the alarms are, in fact, out of service
  • Time of drill
    • Activate a pull station by opening the box and flipping the switch, do not break the glass rod and do not attempt to set off the alarm using the test button on the fire panel. The test button does not necessarily verify all alarm notification components would have operated correctly.
    • Using a stop watch, time how long it takes to evacuate the building and take an approximate count of how many people evacuated.
    • Once everyone is safely out of the building, have the Maintenance Technician silence the alarm.
    • While the Officers are searching the building, take this opportunity to thank the participants, critique any problems observed, provide any additional instructions based on your observations and entertain any questions the participants might have. Particularly ask if anyone observed any failures of equipment; could not hear the alarm, emergency lights did not work, etc.
    • When the Officers give you the all clear that it is safe to reenter the building, thank everyone again and let them go back to what they were doing.
    • Everyone who assisted in conducting the drill should meet at the fire alarm panel to critique the drill; were there any equipment failures, did everyone respond in a timely manner, was there any confusion in evacuating or going to the rally point, etc.
    • If equipment problems were encountered, attempt to fix them immediately. If they cannot be fixed immediately, notify the XU Police Dispatcher and the Building Coordinator of the situation and what actions, if any, they must take to keep the occupants safe until the problem can be resolved.
    • Reset the pull station. Have a XU Police Officer reset the fire alarm panel and intrusion if required. Close everything up and if all alarms are clear, ask the XU Police Dispatcher to call the alarms back into service.
    • Thank those who assisted in the drill and allow them to return to their normal activities.
    • Notify the Building Coordinator that everything has been reset and the building is back in a normal condition.
    • Return your borrowed equipment, radio, bull horn, etc.
    • Complete the Fire Drill After Action Report and Fire Drill Summary Report within 24 hours
    • If any mechanical deficiencies were found, follow up to make sure they are corrected as soon as possible.