Recent state legislation requires that WSU ensure that all instructional staff are trained in fire evacuation procedures before the beginning of each academic year.

Instructional staff includes all faculty, part-time faculty, lecturers, GTAs and TAs.

This is email sets forth what you need to know in the event a fire evacuation scenario occurs in a building while you are teaching a class. Please read this carefully and make sure you are familiar with all provisions:

Prior to a fire emergency [preferably at the beginning of an academic semester] the instructor should consult the building's evacuation signs to determine location of exists, stairwells, areas of refuge and outside assembly areas.

Upon actuation of a fire alarm system or should fire conditions become apparent, instructors should ensure that all students immediately evacuate the classroom and building via the nearest available exit.

Instructors should accompany their class to the pre-determined outside assembly area. Always use the stairwells to evacuate. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS.

Once in the stairwell, the instructor should check to see that the door is closed and proceed down to the first level and out the exit.

Gather outside at the assembly area. DO NOT allow students to reenter the building until the Wayne State Police or the fire department tells you it is safe to do so.

For all fire alarm scenarios, the instructor should assist a mobility impaired/disabled student. If a mobility impaired/disabled student cannot self-evacuate [such as a student in a wheelchair who cannot be taken down the stairs] or cannot be evacuated without personal danger to the instructor, theinstructor should assist the disabled person to the nearest stairwell where they can await evacuation by first responders. The instructor should inform the student that he/she will inform first responders of the student's location in the building.

When first responders arrive, the instructor should immediately notify them of where the disabled student is located in the building.

If you have any questions about these procedures, please contact William Kemp in the Office of Risk Management at either 577-3111 or william.kemp@wayne.edu for further guidance.