In workplace emergencies, fire has rules of its own, which Portuguese law covers in detail. This lesson complements what basic SST training says about fires, without repeating it, and focuses on how emergencies are organised and on evacuation.
The law
Fire safety in buildings (SCIE) is governed by Decreto-Lei n.º 220/2008 (Decree-Law 220/2008), as later amended, and by the technical regulation that supplements it (Portaria n.º 1532/2008, amended and republished by Portaria n.º 135/2020). These rules set the self-protection measures for each building or establishment. Lei n.º 102/2009, for its part, requires the employer to organise firefighting and evacuation (Articles 15(9) and 75).
Words worth knowing
In the regulations, these words have a precise meaning.
- Prevention plan: a document with the organisation and procedures to avoid fires and maintain the self-protection measures.
- Internal emergency plan: a document with the measures to take in a fire. It includes the action plan (each person's tasks) and the evacuation plan (routes, safe areas, rules of conduct).
- Safety records: documents where incidents, maintenance and reports on training, drills and fires are noted.
- Emergency plan drawing: a drawing of the space showing evacuation routes and the resources available.
- First response: action by the occupants themselves to fight a fire as soon as they detect it.
- Second response: action by the fire brigade or specialist teams after the alarm.
In buildings with these requirements, people with safety roles, such as the safety delegate, are designated by the company.
Raising the alarm
The typical sequence is:
- Activate the manual alarm, if there is one, or shout a warning.
- Call 112, giving the location, what is burning and whether anyone is hurt.
- Tell the company's person in charge and follow the emergency plan.
- Try to put the fire out only if it is small, if you have training to use the extinguisher and if you have a clear exit behind you.
If in doubt, leaving is the right decision. Things can be replaced, people cannot.
Evacuating
- Stay calm; do not run, do not push.
- Follow the emergency exit signs and the emergency plan drawing.
- Do not use lifts, unless they are designed for evacuation.
- If there is smoke, keep low, where the air is better, and cover your nose and mouth with a cloth.
- Touch a closed door with the back of your hand: if it is hot, do not open it.
- Close doors behind you, without locking them, to slow the fire and smoke.
- Go to the assembly point and answer the roll call. Return only when the fire brigade says so.
- If someone's clothes are on fire: stop, drop to the ground and roll, or smother the flames with a blanket. Then cool the burn.
- If you cannot get out, go to a room with a window, close the door, block the gaps with wet cloths and tell 112 where you are.
People who need help
Visitors, customers and colleagues with reduced mobility or a sensory disability may need support. The company must provide, in the emergency plan, for who helps whom and how. Nobody should try to carry a person without training to do so, as they may injure them or themselves. The priority is to tell the designated person and the fire brigade where the person has been left.
Drills
Drills (evacuation exercises) are for testing the plan and making sure everyone knows what to do. Taking part seriously is a duty of cooperation. Afterwards, it is worth recording what went well and what failed, and putting it right.
And first aid in a fire?
Someone taken out of a fire may have burns, smoke poisoning or cardiac arrest. The fire brigade and the INEM deal with that. Until they arrive, apply the care already covered: cool burns, keep watch on breathing and, if they are not breathing, BLS.
Limits
This lesson does not train anyone for the second response or for the role of safety delegate. Practical training is the employer's responsibility.