Responding to the Source of the Fire

Q: The practice here during a fire response is that at least one person from everywhere else around the hospital take a fire extinguisher to the area that the fire alarm is being announced from. At a previous hospital that I worked at this was also done, but at a Joint Commission survey, the surveyor stated that this practice was leaving other areas without the proper extinguishers and staff, should a fire also break out in those areas. And the surveyor said it is bringing an additional 20-30 individuals to a potentially dangerous area, which I tend to agree with. However, I am looking for something against this practice to provide to our Security/Facilities Director for a reason to change this practice, like a standard or interpretation but have not found one yet. What are your thoughts?

A: I do not agree with that line of logic. First of all, the Life Safety Code (see section 4.3.2 of the 2012 LSC) assumes there will only be a single fire source. In other words, fire will not break out simultaneously in a dozen different locations throughout the building.

Secondly, help is needed immediately at the source of the fire and having people bring portable fire extinguishers is a great source of help. Nearly all fires in a hospital start out small, and eventually will grow into large conflagrations if left unchecked. Early detection and suppression systems are the best form of preventing those fires from getting out of control. As soon as the fire detection system identifies there is a fire in a room somewhere, having 20 people respond with fire extinguishers is a very good plan in my book.

But hey, that’s only my opinion.