Compartment Fire Evacuation Drills

Legislative Framework

Compartment fire evacuation drills are a key component of fire safety compliance for nursing homes and designated centres under Irish legislation and HIQA guidance.

Health Act 2007 - HIQA Regulation 28

Regulation 28 requires the registered provider to ensure adequate arrangements for detecting, containing, and extinguishing fire, and for the safe evacuation of residents. Regular fire drills, including compartment evacuation, are expected as part of demonstrating compliance. View on Irish Statute Book

Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003

The Fire Services Acts place duties on persons having control of premises to take reasonable measures to guard against fire and to ensure safe evacuation. Premises must have adequate means of escape and fire safety management procedures. View on Irish Statute Book

Our Consultants

Our fire evacuation drill assessors hold MIIRSM, CPSH.IIESMS, and CMIOSH qualifications with extensive experience in healthcare fire safety. Two qualified assessors attend every session to ensure accurate timing and comprehensive documentation.

Phoenix STS is Ireland's first CPD-certified fire safety training provider for the nursing home sector. All drill assessment services are covered by comprehensive professional indemnity insurance.

Nationwide Compartment Fire Evacuation Drill Services

Phoenix STS provides compartment fire evacuation drill assessment services throughout Ireland. Based in Longford with nationwide coverage, our qualified assessors work with nursing homes, disability services, hospices, and all designated centres across all 26 counties.

What compartment drills should prove

A compartment fire evacuation drill in a healthcare setting should test decision-making, communication, staff roles and the practical movement of people to a place of relative safety. It should not be presented as proof that every resident can be fully evacuated from the building in a fixed number of minutes. In nursing homes and designated centres, the more defensible approach is usually progressive horizontal evacuation, supported by compartmentation, staff training, realistic staffing assumptions and suitable evacuation equipment.

Phoenix STS designs drills around the actual layout of the centre. We look at fire compartments, cross-corridor doors, resident dependency, night staffing, alarm strategy, available equipment and the route from bedroom to refuge or adjoining compartment. The drill should answer practical questions: who investigates the alarm, who calls the fire service, who starts evacuation, who records residents moved, how are visitors managed, and how does the person in charge maintain oversight?

Resident safety and realistic practice

Practice must not create unnecessary risk. Staff should not be used as practice patients for hazardous movements, and residents should not be placed into unsafe simulated evacuations to prove a point. Where physical movement needs to be practised, suitable training aids, rescue manikins or controlled demonstrations can be used. The purpose is to test staff competence and the system, not to expose people to avoidable manual handling or falls risk.

The drill record should capture the scenario, the staff on duty, the compartment involved, equipment used, communication problems, timing observations, learning points and actions. This evidence supports the fire safety programme expected by HIQA?s Fire Safety Handbook and the fire precautions duties under Regulation 28. The strongest drill records show what improved afterwards, not just that a drill took place.

What should be checked after the drill

The most useful learning often comes after the physical exercise. Phoenix STS reviews whether staff recognised the correct compartment, whether the alarm response was understood, whether doors were kept closed, whether communication reached the person in charge, and whether evacuation equipment was accessible. We also look at whether staff naturally moved towards unsafe shortcuts, whether residents would have been exposed to smoke, and whether the procedure matched the building layout.

A drill can also reveal management issues that are not obvious in a classroom session. Examples include unclear night-staff roles, evacuation sheets stored away from bedrooms, staff uncertainty about residents who require two-person assistance, poor radio or phone communication, or records that do not show who was moved. Those issues should be added to an action plan and reviewed by management, not treated as training observations only.

Tabletop and physical drill balance

Physical compartment drills are valuable, but they should be supported by tabletop exercises. A tabletop exercise allows managers and staff to explore a more complex scenario without creating risk: blocked routes, simultaneous resident distress, loss of lighting, delayed staff support, oxygen in use, visitors present or a night-time alarm. The combination of tabletop discussion and controlled physical practice gives a stronger picture of readiness than either method alone.

Phoenix STS can help providers build a drill programme over the year so that scenarios vary by compartment, staffing level and resident need. This avoids repeating the same simple exercise and calling it evidence. A good programme should show that the centre is learning, that actions are closed and that staff are becoming more confident in the procedures they may need to use under pressure.

Using drill findings properly

A compartment drill should lead to practical decisions, not just a pass or fail note. If staff lose time because an evacuation aid is stored too far away, a bedroom is difficult to access, a smoke door does not close cleanly, or communication between zones is unclear, the action should address that control. It is not enough to tell staff to move faster. The safer response is to improve the arrangement that caused the delay.

The review should also separate matters that can be corrected immediately from issues that need management approval, maintenance input or capital works. A missing key, poor signage or cluttered equipment store may be corrected quickly. A weak compartment line, repeated alarm confusion or inadequate night staffing profile needs a more formal action plan, clear ownership and a realistic date for completion.

Evidence that should be kept

A useful drill record should identify the date, time, compartment, simulated fire location, staff present, assumed resident dependency, equipment used, evacuation route, timings, decisions made and any problems observed. The record should also say what changed afterwards. HIQA and internal governance reviews are more likely to value evidence that shows learning and follow-up than a certificate stating that a drill took place.

Where a drill shows that a resident group would need more assistance than expected, the result should be reflected in evacuation planning, PEEPs where relevant, staff training and equipment provision. The fire risk assessment and evacuation plan drawings should also be checked so that written documents still match the way staff are expected to respond in the building.

Night staffing and dependency changes

Drill findings should be checked against the staffing profile that actually applies when risk is highest. A daytime drill may show good technique, but it cannot by itself prove that the same compartment can be managed safely at night. Providers should consider the largest compartment, the most dependent residents, the likely alarm sequence, the distance to receiving compartments and the number of staff available before concluding that the evacuation strategy is workable.

Resident dependency also changes over time. A compartment that was manageable six months ago may become much more difficult after admissions, illness, bariatric care needs or increased cognitive impairment. For that reason, drill learning should feed back into dependency reviews, PEEPs, equipment checks and staff allocation. The aim is to keep the evacuation plan realistic as the service changes.

That discipline is what turns a drill into a useful management control rather than a training event that is quickly forgotten.