Under the guidelines of the City of Durham Fire Department, tenants of office buildings must participate in emergency response plans and make responsible and dependable employees available for designation as Area Evacuation Directors.

Tenants are required to participate in periodic fire drills. All employees must be instructed that fire drills are not to be taken lightly and to cooperate with the instructions of the Area Evacuation Director assigned to their areas. Tenants are responsible for submitting their company evacuation procedures to the Property Management Office. (Tenants have the option of using the Emergency Evacuation Team Roster form included in the Appendix or creating their own form/plan.)

Additionally, each tenant is encouraged to establish an after-hours calling tree for contacting its’ employees in the event of an emergency.

Employees should be instructed to report all smoke or unusual odors indicating a possible fire to their Area Evacuation Director and building management. All fires, no matter how small or quickly extinguished, must be reported.

Each tenant is responsible for designating its own company meeting location for employees to congregate, in the event of a full building evacuation. The meeting place should be located well away from the building (300ft. minimum), and provide safe refuge. After the evacuation, the Suite Monitor is responsible for taking attendance to ensure that all of their company’s suite occupants and visitors are accounted for, and should report missing individuals to the local authorities.