New Zealand Fire Service Evacuation Scheme Information

Section 21B(1) of the Act, requires owners of relevant buildings to provide and maintain evacuation schemes. The scheme must be designed to enable evacuation from the scene of a fire safely and in a reasonable time.

Regulation 6(1) of the Regulations requires owners of schedule 1 buildings to have evacuation procedures in place for the safe, prompt and efficient evacuation of the buildings occupants in the event of a fire emergency requiring evacuation.

The New Zealand Fire Service manages the evacuation scheme requirements of the Act and the Regulations.

In the case of a relevant building, the owner is required to make a written application to the National Commander for approval of the evacuation scheme. The application has to be in a prescribed form as set out in Schedule 4, Form 1 of the Regulations.

Commercial & Industrial Fires in New Zealand

Research undertaken as part of the New Zealand Fire Service Commission's contestable research determined that the cost of fire to the New Zealand work place in one year was as shown.

Building Evacuation

Fires occur in commercial and industrial buildings in New Zealand. Fire safety legislation makes it the responsibility of building owners to take fire safety precautions in their buildings, as well as provide fire evacuation procedures. The legislation also requires the occupants of buildings to comply with those precautions and follow the fire evacuation procedures put in place by the owner of the building.

For the purposes of the Fire Service Act 1975 (the Act) and the Fire Safety and Evacuation of Buildings Regulations 2006 (the Regulations), commercial and industrial buildings fall into two broad categories of building:

• schedule 1 buildings, and
• relevant buildings