The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) held a fire drill for all tenants in Workers House to mock a fire situation to assess its preparedness in case of a fire outbreak in the building.
NSSF is holding the fire drill in an effort to ensure the safety of all tenants in the building and train them in practical response to fire threats. Workers House is a high rise building with 23 levels comprised of 4 basements and 4 roof top service levels from level 19 to level 23.
The building has a gross area of approximately 18,000 square metres and is occupied 100% by a total of 52 tenants. These include government ministries, departments and agencies, parastals and private enterprises, NSSF's Chief Administration Officer Mr. George Kyarikunda said.
According to Mr. Kyarikunda, Workers House has an average daily flow of 6,750 people including tenants, service providers and visitors.
Every floor has at least one fire marshal on either wing, whose responsibility is to ensure that all people on the floor are accounted for, incase of a fire. The importance of this drill is to ensure that all the fire safety measures that have been put in place are operational and will ensure safety and minimal damage and loss of life and property in case of a fire, he added.
For a fire drill to be considered successfully, all precautionary measures should be executed within 5 minutes of the alert. These include sounding the alarm, evacuation of the building by all occupants guided by the marshals and a census at the assembly point to account for all evacuees. The drill comes after the recent training for 45 fire at the Fire Masters headquarters in Kibuli.
NSSF's Workers House has an elaborate fire detection and suppression system that includes smoke detectors, water sprinklers, hose reels (including dry and wet risers compatible with the fire brigade services) and 2 fire water tanks.
All are backed up by stand alone fire extinguishers on all floors that can extinguish all classes of fires. NSSF has also installed fire warning and fire exit notices on all floors in Workers House, Social Security House and all its offices countrywide detailing how the public and occupants should respond to fire threats.
Mr Kyarikunda added that this is all part of NSSF's Fire Policy which provides for regular fire training, fire drill and servicing of all fire fighting equipment. Fire drills for Workers House will be conducted on a bi-annual basis to ensure fire alertness and safety of the occupants. The
The drill is a joint effort between the Police Fire Brigade, Traffic Police, Fire Masters, Bageine Company Limited, Saracen, Uganda Elevator Company and NSSF. The success of drill will be evaluated on a score sheet by Fire Masters on how the expectations have been met.
