F89 Building Evacuation and Drills 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under FDNY regulations, how often must a full building evacuation drill be conducted in a high-rise office building?
- Monthly
- Quarterly
- Twice per year (Correct answer)
- Once per year
Correct answer: Twice per year
FDNY rules require high-rise office buildings to conduct full evacuation drills at least twice per year.
Question 2: During a drill, an employee refuses to participate and returns to their desk. What is the Fire Safety Director's most appropriate immediate action?
- Ignore the behavior and continue the drill
- Physically escort the employee out
- Document the non-compliance and notify building management (Correct answer)
- Cancel the drill until all occupants comply
Correct answer: Document the non-compliance and notify building management
The FSD should document non-compliance and escalate to management, as they cannot physically compel participation.
Question 3: What is the primary purpose of a 'partial evacuation' or 'floor sweep' drill scenario?
- To test the fire alarm system's audibility on specific floors
- To practice evacuating only the fire floor and the floors immediately above and below (Correct answer)
- To reduce disruption while still training staff on partial-building procedures
- To evaluate how quickly elevator operators can assist occupants
Correct answer: To practice evacuating only the fire floor and the floors immediately above and below
A partial evacuation drill trains occupants on the standard practice of evacuating the fire floor plus adjacent floors immediately above and below.
Question 4: Which document should a Fire Safety Director consult to determine the designated assembly area for a specific building?
- The building's Certificate of Occupancy
- The approved Fire Safety Plan (Correct answer)
- The local zoning ordinance
- The NFPA 101 Life Safety Code
Correct answer: The approved Fire Safety Plan
The approved Fire Safety Plan specifies all emergency procedures including designated assembly areas for that building.
Question 5: A drill is conducted during a severe rainstorm. Occupants gather under the building's overhang rather than at the designated assembly area 50 feet away. What should the FSD do?
- Allow the deviation since safety from weather takes priority
- Record it as a drill failure and reschedule immediately
- Note the deviation in the drill report and address proper assembly area compliance in post-drill training (Correct answer)
- Halt the drill and send all occupants back inside
Correct answer: Note the deviation in the drill report and address proper assembly area compliance in post-drill training
The FSD should document the deviation in the drill report and use it as a training point to reinforce correct assembly area procedures.
Question 6: What is a 'warden accountability' check during an evacuation drill?
- Verifying that all floor wardens reported to their assigned posts (Correct answer)
- Confirming that the FDNY received the fire alarm signal
- Checking that stairwell doors closed properly behind evacuees
- Ensuring the fire suppression system was not accidentally activated
Correct answer: Verifying that all floor wardens reported to their assigned posts
Warden accountability verifies that every assigned floor warden actually reported to their designated post during the drill.
Question 7: In a drill post-mortem, the FSD discovers that Stairwell B was congested while Stairwell A was underutilized. What corrective action is most appropriate?
- Permanently close Stairwell A to all non-emergency use
- Revise floor assignments in the Fire Safety Plan to distribute traffic more evenly between stairwells (Correct answer)
- Install a turnstile at Stairwell B to regulate flow
- Reduce the number of occupants assigned to the affected floors
Correct answer: Revise floor assignments in the Fire Safety Plan to distribute traffic more evenly between stairwells
Revising floor-to-stairwell assignments in the Fire Safety Plan addresses the root cause of uneven stairwell load.
F89 Building Evacuation and Drills 4
Under FDNY regulations, how often must a full building evacuation drill be conducted in a high-rise office building?