Evacuation and intervention plans for healthcare

Hospitals, clinics, care centres and medico-social establishments fall under specific ERP classifications. Care facilities are classified ERP type U (articles U 1 to U 64 of the fire-safety regulation), while accommodation for the elderly and disabled (EHPAD, MAS, FAM nursing homes) falls under type J (articles J 1 to J 39). Both regimes impose reinforced requirements on compartmentalisation, smoke control, category-A fire-safety systems (SSI) and evacuation plans.

Unlike other ERPs, hospital buildings prioritise horizontal evacuation through patient transfer: patients are not initially evacuated outside the building but transferred to a safe waiting area (ZMA) or fire-resistant compartment on the same level. The plan must clearly identify these areas, the fire-resistant doors and the transfer routes.

ISO 23601-compliant intervention plans are particularly important in healthcare establishments: the emergency services must be able to quickly locate fire-safety systems, utility shut-offs (medical gases, oxygen, electricity), operating theatres, ICUs and critical-care units.

In a healthcare establishment, total and immediate evacuation is neither realistic nor desirable: patients are bedridden, on medical equipment, sometimes in isolation or intensive care. The doctrine adopted by ERP type U and type J is horizontal evacuation: transfer to a fire-resistant adjacent compartment, then deferred evacuation if necessary.

The evacuation plan must therefore clearly represent fire-resistant compartments, fire doors (with their fire-resistance rating), safe waiting areas, airlocks, fire-fighter priority lifts and protected staircases. Care managers, technical agents and fire-safety teams must have dedicated, up-to-date plans.

For nursing homes and accommodation for dependent elderly people, the same logic applies with particular attention to Alzheimer units, sleeping accommodation and residents losing autonomy. A trained on-site fire-safety officer at night is mandatory in most of these establishments.

The intervention plan compliant with ISO 23601 is intended for firefighters and fire-rescue teams during an intervention. It must enable quick location of: manual call points, fire hose reels, dry and wet risers, smoke vents, medical-gas shut-offs, fire doors, operating theatres, ICUs, A&E, particular-risk premises (laundry, kitchen, boiler room, dangerous-product storage).

With Fabrik, you generate the occupant evacuation plan and the intervention plan in parallel from the same data. ISO 7010 pictograms ensure immediate readability, and the high-resolution PDF export allows A2 or A1 printing for the intervention board near the security desk.