Building Evacuation Trial
A facilitated, staged building evacuation exercise (Stage 1, 2 or 3) coordinated with your Emergency Control Organisation and occupants. FERST plans, observes and debriefs the trial — testing procedures, communications, assembly arrangements and timing. Required annually and key to verifying readiness.
Course overview
A building evacuation trial puts your emergency procedures to the test under realistic conditions — confirming that your people, your communications and your assembly arrangements actually work when it counts.
FERST plans, facilitates, observes and debriefs a staged evacuation exercise (Stage 1, 2 or 3) coordinated with your Emergency Control Organisation and building occupants. We work with you to set the scenario and scope, observe how the ECO and occupants respond on the day, and capture timing, communication flow, warden coverage and assembly-area accountability throughout.
Afterwards, we debrief with your ECO and provide findings on what worked and where procedures, training or arrangements could be strengthened — giving you documented evidence that your emergency plan has been tested. Delivered on-site and aligned with AS 3745 (Planning for emergencies in facilities), an evacuation trial helps satisfy the requirement to validate emergency response procedures at least annually.
Suitable for any workplace or facility required to test its emergency plan — offices, healthcare facilities, educational campuses, retail premises, accommodation facilities, warehouses and industrial sites.
Additional information
A building evacuation trial involves your whole facility and is coordinated in advance with your Emergency Control Organisation and building management.To run an effective trial, the building should have current emergency procedures and evacuation diagrams in place, and a nominated ECO (wardens, chief warden) to coordinate the response.
FERST will work with you beforehand to agree the scope, scenario and timing, and to notify the relevant parties as appropriate.
Attendance and completion: ECO participants must sign on via the QR code at the start of the debrief so attendance can be captured. Anyone leaving a session before it is complete will be deemed not to have completed the course and excluded from final attendance records.
The evacuation trial is a tested exercise, not a guaranteed pass. FERST observes and assesses the response of your Emergency Control Organisation and occupants as a whole against the requirements of AS 3745 and your site's emergency procedures.
Following the trial and debrief, FERST produces an evacuation report documenting how the exercise was conducted, the performance observed, and an overall performance rating for the facility. Where performance falls below the required standard, the trial is recorded as a fail, and the report sets out the shortfalls and the actions needed to address them.
The rating reflects the collective performance of the ECO and occupants on the day — it is not an assessment of individual participants.
On-site sessions are practical, site-specific, and tailored to your facility's emergency procedures and evacuation diagrams.
Training facility sessions accommodate groups of up to 20 participants. Group sizes and session durations are listed in the course details above.
FERST is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environment for all participants. If you have any questions, feedback, or wish to raise a concern, contact us at hello@ferst.training or call 1300 333 778.
