This is an overview of all legally binding requirements and obligations for building owners under the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018.

Adhering to these obligations and requirements not only ensures compliance, but also plays a key role in safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone in your building.

You may be looking for other types of support in this area:

• Evacuation schemes and procedures.
• Regulations for building tenants & occupants.

Owners of certain buildings must provide evacuation procedures. All buildings that are listed in schedule 2(external link) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018 must have an evacuation procedure.

An evacuation procedure describes how occupants will safely, promptly, and efficiently escape the building if there is a fire, or an alarm of fire.

In most cases, owners of buildings that are or contain workplaces or allow public access must have an evacuation procedure to ensure people can be evacuated in case of a fire or alarm of a fire.

The procedure must:

• Ensure people can be evacuated to a place of safety.
• Provide for the safety of people who need particular assistance to evacuate.

The owner of a building must ensure that information about the evacuation procedure is readily available to the building’s occupants, including information about:

• the routes of travel to the place or places of safety for the building; and
• the fire alarm signals or other methods that are used for alerting occupants or that are available for use by the occupants; and
• any firefighting equipment that is available for use by the occupants; and
• the provision for any person who requires particular assistance; and
• how to alert Fire and Emergency to a fire emergency.

Fire Action Notice

Owners must also post clear, distinct, and legible signs and notices at appropriate places in the building that clearly summarise the information above. These signs must:

• have a safety blue background and a white border
• lettering on the safety blue background must be white; and
• printed lettering on the signs and notices must be no less than 5 mm high
• any spaces on the signs or notices that are designed to contain hand-written information must be white and at least 10 mm high.

Templates for Fire Action Notices that you can fill out for your premises can be found below:

• To type in your details: Digital Fire Action Notice. [DOCX, 38 KB]
• To handwrite your details: Handwritten Fire Action Notice. [PDF, 84 KB]

In addition to providing an evacuation procedure, the owners of a relevant building that meet certain conditions must also have an evacuation scheme approved by Fire and Emergency. See ‘Do I need an approved evacuation scheme’ to find out if you need to provide and maintain an approved evacuation scheme.

Refer to regulation 7(external link).

Trained employees to assist occupants to evacuate

An owner of a building listed below must ensure that occupants that are employees of the owner are trained to assist other occupants of the building to evacuate the building in a fire emergency in accordance with the evacuation procedure for that building:

• Childcare centres and kindergarten.
• Day-care centres and facilities.
• Courthouse.
• Police station.
• Hotels, motels, hostels, halls of residence, holiday cabins, groups of pensioners
  flats, boarding houses, guest houses, and other premises providing accommodation for the public.
• Educational institutions, including public and private primary, intermediate, and secondary schools, universities, Te Pūkenga—New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and its Crown entity subsidiaries, and other tertiary institution.
• Libraries, museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions.
• A relevant building.

Refer to regulation 9(1) and (2)(external link).

Do I need to apply for approval of an evacuation scheme?

Building owners who are required to provide and maintain an approved evacuation scheme:

Building owners are required to provide and maintain an approved evacuation scheme when the building, or part of the building, is used for one or more of the following purposes:

• the gathering together, for any purpose, of 100 or more persons; or
• providing employment facilities for 10 or more persons; or
• providing accommodation for 6 or more persons (other than in 3 or fewer household units); or
• providing an early childhood education and care centre (other than in a household unit); or
• providing nursing, medical, or geriatric care (other than in a household unit); or
• providing specialised care for persons with disabilities (other than in a household unit); or
• providing accommodation for persons under lawful detention (not being persons serving a sentence of home detention or community detention, or serving a sentence of imprisonment on home detention, or on parole subject to residential restrictions imposed under section 15 of the Parole Act 2002); or any other prescribed purpose; or
• a building or part of a building (other than a household unit) where hazardous substances are present in quantities exceeding the prescribed minimum amounts, whatever the purpose for which the building is used.

See sections 75(external link) and 76(external link) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017.

Applications to Fire and Emergency for approval of an evacuation scheme must contain the information set out in schedule 4(external link) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018, and must be accompanied by a copy of the proposed evacuation scheme. Applications must be made:

• in the case of a relevant building that is, or is part of, a new building, before (but not earlier than 30 working days before) the date on which the building is first lawfully occupied;
• in the case of a relevant building that is, or is part of, an existing building, before (but not more than 30 working days before) the date on which the building or part of the building becomes a relevant building.
  

Learn more about evacuation schemes and procedures.

The owner of a building listed in schedule 2(external link) must maintain the means of escape from fire for a building, and ensure that:

• the means of escapes are always free of obstacles; and
• exit doors are unlocked and not blocked, so occupants can get out of the building in case of a fire emergency; and
• smoke-control and fire-stop doors are kept closed unless they are kept open in a way that complies with the building code
• stairwells and hallways are not cluttered with stored items or waste.

This regulation does not apply to a person managing people under control or supervision, or people detained in a hospital or secure facility if the person has a controlled process for the safe evacuation of the building.

Refer to regulation 5(external link).

Flammable cleaning liquid and flammable material

The owner of a building listed in schedule 2(external link) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018 must ensure that flammable cleaning liquid or flammable material in the building:

• is stored in non-combustible containers with close-fitting lids; and
• is not stored near or in the means of escape from fire for the building.

Refer to regulation 6(external link).

Appliances and systems

The owner of a building listed in schedule 2(external link) of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fire Safety, Evacuation Procedures, and Evacuation Schemes) Regulations 2018 must take reasonable fire prevention precautions in relation to:

• electrical wiring, equipment, and appliances, including portable electrical equipment and appliances; and
• gas reticulation systems, equipment, and appliances, including portable gas reticulation equipment and appliances; and
• equipment and appliances fuelled by flammable liquids (for example, kerosene), including portable equipment and appliances.

Any appliance that gives an open flame or is fuelled by a flammable liquid or gas must not be used in a building unless the appliance is constructed, secured, and protected in a manner that minimises the risk of fire to the building and its contents.

Refer to regulation 10(external link).

The owner of building must install hand-operated firefighting equipment if required by Fire and Emergency.

Fire and Emergency may, in writing, require the owner of a building listed in schedule 2(external link) to install hand-operated firefighting equipment in a particular location in the building if:

• the building has only a single means of escape; and
• the building has no automatic sprinkler system; and
• Fire and Emergency is satisfied that activities occurring in the building and the locations of those activities in the building make it more likely that fire could affect the means of escape from the building.

Refer to regulation 15(external link).

Maintenance of firefighting equipment for use by building’s occupants

The owner of any hand-operated firefighting equipment installed in a building for firefighting by the buildings occupants must maintain it in accordance with NZS 4503:2005—Hand operated fire-fighting equipment(external link).

Refer to regulation 14(external link).