Transcription
Greetings. This is Charles McNamara, virtual instructor. To review the FDNY FL SD on-site exam, you will prepare by reviewing your site-specific fire safety plan and BIC card. This course, an on-site exam review, covers three components broken down by general building knowledge, the fire component, and the non-fire component.
One of the first sections that we will discuss will be the elevator portion. You will need to know how many banks and cars are located in your building for the elevators and what floors they service. You will need to know the difference between the passenger elevators and freight elevators. You will be required to demonstrate Phase 1 and Phase 2 elevator operations. Another portion you must be familiar with is communication to and from the elevator car, and lastly, independent mode.
The next item we will discuss is emergency exit stairwells and their location of re-entry floors. You will be directing people away from danger. HVAC will be important as well, to understand how chemical and smoke play a role in emergencies, which can be coming from inside or outside the property. Best case: shut it down.
The next important thing you will need to know are the building utilities such as steam and gas, and where the shutoff valves are. Does your building have a generator or battery backup? All of that information can be found in your building information card, or BIC card. You must know those sections, as you will be tested on those by the fire department inspector. Also, look at the other side of the BIC card, which will give you a description of the building and some of the layout of the most important things you need to know.
The FL SD will be responsible to conduct training and drills throughout the building. You must prepare an outline for brigade members, building evacuation supervisors, and floor wardens. You'll have a general overview and discuss the fire safety EAP plan, how to deal with fire and non-fire emergencies, as well as what to do in the event of an active shooter. You will cover the four basic concepts: shelter-in-place, in-building relocation, partial evacuation, and full evacuation.
As a Fire Life Safety Director, it is your responsibility to be very familiar with your building panel, as you will need to identify all of the buttons on your panel to the inspector. You must be able to explain the trouble, supervisory, and fire alarms on your panel. You must be able to demonstrate and explain one-way and two-way communication. You must be able to take the building offline and put it back online for your exam. One-way communication will be through the PA system, and two-way through the warden phone.
One of the other things you will need to know is how to reset the system in the event of an actual alarm. You will need to use the 26:42 fireman service key to start by putting the elevator in Phase one, going inside and putting it on Phase two. This test is done on a monthly basis. You'll put it on normal to fireman service and listen to the inspector's instructions. Next, you will place the elevator on independent mode and follow the inspector's instructions. The inspector shall read a scenario to the candidate and allow them to proceed. The candidate shall be given 15 minutes to prepare his or her response on paper; however, the candidates must verbally state his or her answers to the inspector. The FDNY inspector shall repeat the scenario one time at the request of the candidate. The candidate must assume to be the only Fire Life Safety Director on duty. They must verbalize all actions that they will take, such as reporting to the fire command station, putting on the apparel, calling 911, the alarm on the panel, making announcements, implementing the plan, calling 911, the elevators, and shutting down the HVAC system, etc. The FL SD is in charge until first responders arrive.
The next portion of the exam will get into a building scenario. The inspector will ask another question of an out-of-service condition. This could be planned or unplanned; planned being inspection, testing, or maintenance being performed, or something that's unplanned, such as a break or malfunction in the system. You will need to know the requirements for impairment tags, as well as the out-of-service discs, which are white and blue, as well as the impairment coordinator. F-01 candidates must know how to respond to biological agent releases, chemical agent releases, CO or natural gas releases, explosions, suspicious packages, civil disturbance, failure of building utilities, building damage, and active shooter scenarios.
In the event of an active shooter scenario, immediately call 911 if safe to do so. Provide as many details as possible to the operator. Do not use manual pull stations in active shooter scenarios. Ensure that you make announcements when it is safe to do so to implement the ABC plan: Avoid, Barricade, Confront, Run if you can, Hide if you must, Fight as a last resort. Law enforcement will be arriving, and their first goal is to stop the immediate threat, then help injured victims. Keep your hands visible and do not make any sudden movements. Listen to their commands.
You will need to know the different FDNY Certificates of Fitness: B-29, F-01, WL-7, F-60, G-60, W-96, S-12, and Ester Teen S-95, Q-99, W-97, F-89, S-97, and S-98. You will also need to know the duration and frequency for Fire Life Safety staff training, the initial training and refresher training required. It will be your responsibility to conduct the staff training.
Another very important section to know and understand will be the inspection, testing, and maintenance requirements as per FDNY and who is authorized to do it. It will either be the Certificate of Fitness holder, an engineer, master fire suppression piping contractor, or a master plumber. Inspections, or visual inspections of the system, testing will require to take the building offline and make notifications. Maintenance will also be required to ensure all fire safety protection systems are in good working order. If they are not in good working order, you have an impairment as per FDNY fire code. You will be required to maintain logs of inspections, testing, and maintenance for things that are done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, and every five years. All fire records must be maintained for three years, and all non-fire related records must be maintained for five years. Fire Life Safety Directors, Q-01 engineers, licensed electricians, and architects are authorized to perform testing of the emergency generators for battery backup. It must be performed by someone with a C of F B-29.
It is highly recommended that you review the FDNY curriculum book in regards to dealing with emergencies. Regardless of the emergency, one of the first things that you will need to know is: did it happen inside of the building or did it happen outside of the building? That information is important because when you implement the plan, you need to know if you're going to shelter-in-place, to an in-building relocation, a partial evacuation, or a full building evacuation. You also need to prioritize care, dealing with the affected area first and the rest of the building for any emergency. When you're making your announcements, you want to notify the building occupants of what, where, why: what has occurred, where it has occurred, what steps of the plan are you implementing, and why. Since you will be calling 9-1-1, you may have multiple agencies responding to your building; it may be a good idea to make the announcements more than once. In your Fire Life Safety Director curriculum, Table 17-A-1 will list all of the possible scenarios you may encounter for your on-site exam. You must be familiar with this material in order to pass. Once again, whatever the emergency is, you want to know if it is inside or outside of the building. This will help you gather some information and implement your plan. Please make sure to refer back to the fire department website and the booklets for your study material. It will also be very important for you to become very familiar with your building. You should set aside some time to walk the property. This way you can see all of the fire exits, fire protection systems, sprinklers, and standpipes, and every critical piece of equipment for your exam. Thank you for watching. Good luck and feel free to join me on Lengthen.