What is a place of safety?
A place of safety is where people are safe from the effects of the fire and free to disperse — normally open air, clear of the building and of anything falling from it.
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<img src="https://fireoptix.co.uk/glossary/place-of-safety/diagram.svg" alt="place of safety — diagram from FireOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://fireoptix.co.uk/glossary/place-of-safety">What is a place of safety?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://fireoptix.co.uk">FireOptix</a>
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</figure>It is the actual end of the escape route, and it is the part most often left undefined. A final exit that discharges into an enclosed yard has moved people out of the building without delivering them anywhere safe.
Guidance distinguishes reaching a place of relative safety — a protected stairway — from reaching ultimate safety outside. Both matter, and the strategy has to say where each is.
It needs to be reachable in the conditions that will exist. A route across a yard that is gated at night, or an assembly point on the far side of a road, are both plans that work only in the daytime rehearsal.
In practice
An assembly point in a car park beside the building.
It is close, it is obvious, and it is where the fire and rescue service will want to set up.
A place of safety has to be far enough away to be safe from the building and from the response to it, and convenient points are chosen for convenience.
It is revisited only after a real evacuation reveals the problem.
What goes wrong in practice
- A final exit discharging into a locked or gated yard.
- An assembly point directly beneath or against the building.
- No onward route from the exit, so people gather in the way of arriving appliances.