Fire safety: a guard’s first five minutes

6 min read · Elite Security Service

When a fire alarm rings, the first person on the scene is rarely a firefighter. It is usually a guard. What he does in the first five minutes decides whether a small incident stays small.

The sequence is simple but must be rehearsed. Confirm the alarm location. Raise the alert and call the fire service and site emergency contacts. Begin evacuation using the nearest safe exit, keeping lifts out of use. Attempt to control a small fire only with the right extinguisher and only if it is safe to do so.

Rehearsed guards act. Unrehearsed guards freeze.

Guards also make the fire service’s job easier: clearing access lanes, guiding engines to the right entrance, keeping crowds away and providing a headcount at the assembly point.

This is why mock drills matter. A drill reveals blocked exits, faulty alarms and confusion about who does what. Guards should take part in every drill, not just observe.

Daily habits matter too: checking that extinguishers are in place and unobstructed, that exits are unlocked and that emergency numbers are visible at every post. Fire safety is mostly boring diligence, and that is precisely why it works.

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