Accidental disciplinary.

[SubJectioN]

Hey CAG,

 

I usually have my morning break at 9.00am in the morning and I go to Boots. Today at 9.02 whilst we were close to leaving the building, a test fire alarm went off and me and a friend went out the fire exits like we should but when we was about half-way down the fire exit, the alarms de-activated so we instantly assumed that it was a false alarm again or it was accidentally triggered because they've been doing maintenance on the alarms all week and sometimes the alarms like to trigger and we got told to not evacuate. We left the fire exit and there was nobody at the fire point at all so we assumed nobody left the building and we proceeded to Boots.

 

Upon getting back to the store, all of the employees were outside and the alarm had been re-activated whilst we was in Boots so we were unaware. I have been given a disciplinary for not following the fire safety procedures.

 

What should I do about this? The alarm shouldn't of went off immediately after it was activated. I've spoke to some members of staff who agree that when it happened they hesitated whether to leave which could be the seconds between life and death.

 

Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

Do you have a copy of the fire safety procedures please? And do you think you followed them? I expect the guys will be along later with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

[SubJectioN]

Hello there.

 

Do you have a copy of the fire safety procedures please? And do you think you followed them? I expect the guys will be along later with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

 

Thank you for commenting.

 

I believe I followed them correctly, we instantly headed to the fire exits so we could wait at the assembly point but as the fire alarm was de-activated, we assumed with all the maintenance on the alarms in the building and with how often they randomly trigger and we get told not to leave that it was an accidental trip.

 

I don't have any copies at the minute, but I read it this morning and it doesn't include any relevant as I can see to this. It's basically just states that if the fire alarm goes off you must evacuate and line up at the assembly point. I fully understand that but we get told a lot not to evacuate when we hear it because they're being tested.

 

Best regards.

[renegadeimp]

Regardless of what managers say, if the fire alarm goes off, you MUST head to the nearest exit. Only ever ignore it if a manager tells you there and then to do so. Treat each alarm separately.

[Atlas01]

You need to explain the situation and apologise, any fire procedure will say you must report to your fire warden on evac so they can account that you are out of the building, you didn't so you breached the policy. You have to ask they take the mitigating factors into account.

[memgrubb]

Can't you just tell them that the fire alarm must have been activated whilst you were out of the building on your break?

[SubJectioN]

Can't you just tell them that the fire alarm must have been activated whilst you were out of the building on your break?

 

Thank you for all the replies.

 

That was the plan, but my manager is very thorough and she checked the CCTV which placed me in the building at the time of the alarm.

 

Surely with the alarm de-activating before I left the building, it would help me in some way, I literally didn't do it on purpose I'm used to false alarms throughout the morning. Can I say that due to the alarms being falsely triggered so regularly, I felt I was misguided by this?

 

Much appreciated.

[renegadeimp]

Thank you for all the replies.

 

That was the plan, but my manager is very thorough and she checked the CCTV which placed me in the building at the time of the alarm.

 

Surely with the alarm de-activating before I left the building, it would help me in some way, I literally didn't do it on purpose I'm used to false alarms throughout the morning. Can I say that due to the alarms being falsely triggered so regularly, I felt I was misguided by this?

 

Much appreciated.

 

THe problem with that is they can simply ask you a question. Were you told to ignore it at the time, or were you told you were allowed to go by a member of management?

[SubJectioN]

THe problem with that is they can simply ask you a question. Were you told to ignore it at the time, or were you told you were allowed to go by a member of management?

 

I was authorised to leave for my break, my break was from 9am to 9.30am so my manager knew fully well that I was leaving the building. There wasn't anybody about and nobody at the assembly point, we went there and the alarm had deactivated so then we left thinking that it was probably a false alarm again.

[Emmzzi]

I would 100% discipline you on the principle a firefighter may be risking their life looking for you while you're off buying a coke. Unacceptable. You never take H&S risks or make assumptions. Stop trying to wriggle out of it and just apologise; you've been caught bonnie.