Fire roll call systems can help bolster fire safety in care homes

Fire roll call systems can help improve the emergency fire evacuation procedures in care homes by ensuring the nominal roll is taken in a very fast manner and all members of staff and residents are accounted for.

This exact situation has recently occurred at a care home in Swanage, in Cauldon Avenue, where residents had to be evacuated after a fire started in a bedroom. Five crews attended the property, but luckily, none of the residents or members of staff were hurt in the process. The care home's group manager praised the multi-agency response to the incident, which saw paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service, officers from Dorset Police and staff from the home working together to help the affected residents.

He said: "There was an ordered evacuation of the premises, good care of the residents once outside, and a methodical search of the building by firefighters in support of the staff's roll call to ensure that everyone was safe. The Sandbanks ferry emergency procedures helped us to get all necessary resources to the scene in a timely manner, so our thanks go to them."

Fire roll call systems — a life-saving feature when the emergency evacuation of staff and residents is required

Safety is ensured when Tensor clocks and Access Control units are linked into your organization's fire alarm system to trigger a fast, automated fire evacuation list.

The T8526 can control up to two printers for evacuation reporting purposes. On activation of a fire alarm panel, automatic roll-call reports are printed listing the names and departments of cardholders who remain on-site. In addition, doors can be configured to open automatically on fire alarm activation and lock automatically once the fire alarm activation condition has ceased.

Reports can be grouped by a cardholder's default resident fire point or by the fire point that they are currently booked on to. Printers are connected either via a direct cable connection or by direct IP and can be limited to reporting upon specific zones or fire points.

Muster points can also be installed where cardholders scan upon arrival at a Muster point. In real-time, Tensor.NET Access removes the cardholder from the fire roll-call report to provide a real-time roll call of any cardholders who remain in the building.

If you'd like to find out more about the Fire Roll Call functionality provided by the Tensor Time & Attendance and Access Control systems, just contact our dedicated product team, they'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries on the matter.