Following the Government’s recent announcement regarding the nationwide alert level changes as at 11:59pm on Tuesday 7 September, we would like to give you an update on Safety First’s plan during this time.
As Safety First’s business activities are not classified as an essential service, all trial evacuations and in-person training scheduled for the Auckland region whilst in alert levels 3 & 4 will be cancelled.
The rest of New Zealand is now in alert level 2, however there are conditions in place that restrict our ability to carry out trial evacuations and in-person training, namely physical distancing and crowd gathering of over 50 persons (in internal environments e.g., offices).
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) state on their website:
Requirement to conduct trial evacuations and deliver training programs suspended under Covid-19 Alert Level 4.
The requirement to maintain your evacuation scheme by either conducting training or completing a trial evacuation is suspended while New Zealand is at Covid-19 Alert level 4. An amendment to the regulations allowing building owners to defer the completion of training and trail evacuations was passed into regulation earlier in the year. This means that at any time when the Alert level for Covid-19 requires physical distancing, the requirement to complete trail evacuations and deliver training programs is suspended.
Once physical distancing requirements are removed then building owners should resume their normal requirements for maintaining their evacuation scheme. For those building owners where the six-monthly maintenance requirement falls within a period at which physical distancing requirements are in force, the corrected date to resume evacuation scheme maintenance activities is calculated by adding the number of days since August 18 to the original due date. (View site)
This means there is no requirement for building owners to conduct trial evacuations or evacuation training programmes if there are physical distancing requirements in place for the area in which the building is located. Trial evacuations voluntarily carried out during this period will be considered ‘unscheduled evacuations’ for the purposes of regulation 29(2) of the Regulations and will count as a trial evacuation for timing purposes.
Because of the alert level 2 restrictions we are only able to undertake trial evacuations for buildings where the occupancy is less than 50 people. Rest assured we will work with you to maintain a safe working environment for all parties when undertaking trial evacuations and will only proceed after we have contacted you and received your consent to proceed.
If at any stage the alert level changes again, and a decision is made to cancel or delay a trial evacuation scheduled prior to the alert level change coming into effect, we will not charge our standard cancellation fee.
We will be working on a plan to fit the trial evacuations for all other buildings into our schedule planning, in readiness for when we can resume our trial evacuation services.
Regardless of the alert level, we continue to provide evacuation scheme implementation services and issue online training.
Online Warden Training is currently available for:
$39 per person 1-5 people
$25 per person for groups of 6 or more, up to 15 persons
Please note that online training logins expire 3 months after the date of issue. An admin fee of $15 will apply to all new customers for purchases under $50. Self-enrolments and payment with credit card do not incur an admin fee.
Feel free to contact us by phone (0800 252 253) or email if you have any queries.
Above all, we hope you continue to stay safe during this time.