Smoke Behind a Warm Door at 21:35
You are the night guard at a four-storey office building. About 22 of the 140 staff are still inside at 21:30, working late. The building has one passenger lift and one enclosed staircase, a fire alarm panel at reception, four dry powder ABC extinguishers on each floor, and a single CO2 extinguisher outside the second-floor server room. At 21:35 you smell burning plastic on the second floor and see light grey smoke coming from under the door of the records room. The door is warm to the touch. The panel shows a fault on the third-floor detector zone rather than an alarm on the second. Two housekeeping staff are mopping near the staircase, and a pantry worker tells you she heard someone talking in the second-floor conference room a few minutes ago. There is no fire warden on site at night and the fire brigade response time in this area is about eight minutes.
1. Give your sequence of actions from the moment you smell burning plastic, and justify each step.
Read the worked answer
1. Raise the alarm first, fight nothing first. Break the nearest manual call point and shout "fire, second floor". The panel showing a fault on the third floor is unreliable - treat the smell and smoke as real and do not wait for the panel to confirm.
2. Call the fire brigade on 101 (or 112) and say: building name and address, second floor records room, smoke and heat behind a closed door, about 22 people inside, one staircase. Give the caller's number and stay on the line if asked.
3. Do not open the records room door. A warm door with smoke seeping around it means fire on the other side. Opening it supplies oxygen, can produce a flashover or a backdraft, and puts the corridor - the only escape route - behind the fire.
4. Evacuate through the staircase, never the lift. Send the two housekeeping staff down immediately, tell them to close doors behind them if it is safe, and use the PA to tell all floors to leave by the staircase and assemble at the designated point. A lift is a chimney and can fail.
5. The conference room. A quick check is justified only if the corridor is still clear of smoke and the route is short. Call out from the doorway; do not crawl into a smoke-filled room alone. If smoke is thickening, withdraw and tell the fire officer that someone may be inside.
6. Fight the fire only if it is small, you are trained, and you have a clear escape route behind you. Otherwise close the door on it and leave.
7. Go to the assembly point, take the staff and visitor register, and do a roll call. Life safety, then property, then evidence.
2. Which extinguisher would you use for (a) the records room and (b) the server room, and under what conditions would you fight either fire at all?
Read the worked answer
(a) Records room - paper, cardboard, files: Class A. The 4 kg ABC dry powder extinguisher is the right choice on this site. Water or a water-based extinguisher would also work on paper, but there is no water appliance on the floor, and a powder unit is the available option. CO2 would knock down flame but is poor at soaking into deep-seated Class A material, so it is not the first choice here.
(b) Server room - live electrical equipment: Class C/E. Use the CO2 extinguisher only. Water conducts and will destroy equipment and endanger the user; dry powder is electrically safe but the fine powder is corrosive and abrasive to servers and hard to clean from a room full of electronics. CO2 leaves no residue. Hold the horn by its insulated handle - frostbite and static are real risks - and ventilate afterwards because CO2 displaces oxygen in a small room.
Technique (PASS): Pull the pin, Aim at the base of the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep side to side. Powder works from about 4–5 m; CO2 from about 1–2 m.
Fight the fire only if all of these are true: the alarm has already been raised and the evacuation is under way; the fire is small, no bigger than a wastepaper basket; you have a colleague with you and a clear escape route at your back; you are trained and the extinguisher is the right class; and smoke is not banking down at head height. If any condition fails, close the door, withdraw, and let the fire brigade do the job. A guard who dies with an extinguisher in his hand has not protected anyone.
3. At the assembly point the roll call shows one person unaccounted for and the pantry worker wants to go back in. What do you do?
Read the worked answer
Refuse re-entry, without argument, and redirect the information to the people who can act on it.
- Stop her physically only as much as is necessary and safe - a hand on the arm and a calm, firm "no, you cannot go back" is enough. Do not let a rescue attempt start. Two untrained people in a smoke-filled stairwell turn one casualty into three and block the staircase for the fire crew.
- Get the facts from her: the missing person's name, department, likely location, when she last saw them, and what they were wearing. Write it down.
- Keep the person who reported the sighting with you so the fire officer can question them directly.
- Station someone at the entrance to meet the fire engine, with the building keys, the floor plan and the register. Eight minutes is a long time; the crew must not lose two of them finding the door.
- On arrival, brief the fire officer in one minute: fire location, warm door on the records room, one person believed in the second-floor conference room, one staircase, lift not to be used, number of people evacuated and unaccounted.
- Do not attempt entry with a wet cloth over your face. That is not breathing apparatus.
- Record the times - alarm raised, brigade called, evacuation complete, roll call result, brigade arrival - and the name of the person reported missing. If the missing person later turns up, record that too, with the time and who confirmed it. Muster lists get used in inquiries, and gaps in the times make the guard look careless.