UPDATE 1 February 2021: Changes to Regulations on trial evacuations and evacuation training programmes

The requirement for building owners to conduct trial evacuations or evacuation training programmes came back into force on 1 February 2021, and will remain in force provided there are no physical distancing requirements in place for the area in which the building is located. Physical distancing requirements are imposed at some COVID-19 Alert Levels and can change over time. Specific exclusions are included in the changes to accommodate those buildings which are in use as Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facilities.

These changes are set out in the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (COVID-19—Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes Amendment Regulations (No 2) 2020. Building owners are not expected to resume trial evacuations or evacuation training programmes immediately the changes come into force. To work out when your next trial evacuation or training programme notification is due, you need to calculate a 6-month period that excludes the time from 25 March 2020 to 31 January 2021, or any longer period when physical distancing requirements remain in force for the area where your building is located. For example:

• If you were due to conduct a trial evacuation by 10 April 2020, 17 days after the suspension began, and there are no physical distancing requirements in force for the area where your building is located, the adjusted 6-month period will end 17 days after the changes take effect which will mean 17 February 2021.

Please read previous COVID-19 Evacuation scheme Updates.

If you have any questions, please contact the Fire Information Unit on 0800 347 346 or email us at fireinfo@fireandemergency.nz


Maintaining an approved evacuation scheme

Once you have an approved evacuation scheme, you must ensure everything described in the scheme is maintained.

  • If your approved evacuation scheme is online, the reference number will begin with 'EV'
  • If your approved evacuation scheme is not online (manual), the reference number will begin with 'MUEV'

Note: Older evacuation schemes up to August 2012 will have a different reference number system.

How to maintain an approved online scheme

If you've elected to carry out trial evacuations

Ten days before your next trial evacuation is due (as indicated by your answer to question 4.4 in your evacuation scheme) you will be sent an email reminder.

What you need to do:

  1. Undertake a trial evacuation on or before the due date
  2. Within 10 working days after your trial evacuation, complete an online trial evacuation report

You can also submit an evacuation report for any unplanned evacuation of your building; including an evacuation in response to a false alarm or an actual incident. This will defer the date for your next trial evacuation. To have this counted you must submit your evacuation report within 10 working days of the evacuation taking place.

If you've elected to carry out a training programme

Ten days before you are due to notify us of your training programme maintenance (as indicated by your answer to question 4.8 in your evacuation scheme) you will be sent an email reminder.

What you need to do:

  1. Undertake scheduled training as per your training programme
  2. Complete an online notification to give us the required information about the training programme undertaken, including:
    • the number of people who have completed the programme in the period since the last notification
    • whether the training was initial or refresher training
    • results of their assessments

Reminders

You will get reminders for the following:

  • For trial evacuations:
    • 10 days before your trial evacuation due date
    • 10 days after your trial evacuation due date, if you have not submitted a trial evacuation report
  • For training programmes:
    • 10 days before you are due to notify us about your training programme maintenance

How to unsubscribe from reminders

  1. Select the Manage my reminders area
  2. Select the scheme you want to unsubscribe from reminders
  3. Uncheck the Send Reminder check box
  4. Click Save Changes

If you wish to unsubscribe from all reminders you can click the Disable All Reminders link, which appears near the top of the reminders dashboard.

How to add more contacts to receive the reminders

All reminders will go to the contact email provided in the approved evacuation scheme or the contact email provided on previous notifications. If you want reminders to go to additional people you can add them as follows:

  1. Select the Manage my reminders area
  2. Select the scheme you want to subscribe additional contacts to, to receive reminders
  3. Add the emails into the secondary emails field (one email in each text box)
  4. Click Save Changes

How to maintain an approved manual scheme

You will need to manually keep track of your due dates for scheme maintenance, whether your scheme provides for trial evacuations or for training programmes. Reminder emails will not be sent.

Trial evacuation reports and training programme notifications can be emailed, faxed or posted to the Fire Information Unit.

email: evacuation@fireandemergency.nz
fax: 09 309 0483
post: 
Fire and Emergency NZ
Fire Information Unit
P O Box 68444
Victoria St West
Auckland 1142

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