Business and industrial operators and owners and occupants of buildings are obliged to keep buildings and operations safe.
The obligations required by the Rescue Act apply, among other things, to the maintenance of the building in such a way that fires and other hazardous situations do not occur and the building can be safely and effectively evacuated in the event of a fire or other accident. The business and industrial operators and the owner and occupants of the building must ensure that the safety of the rescue personnel is taken into account and that rescue operations are possible in the event of a fire or other accident.
In addition, the following must be kept in working order:
- equipment installed in the building, such as automatic fire detectors and extinguishing equipment
- primary extinguishing equipment
- exit route lighting
- civil defence shelter.
Provision must also be made for self-preparedness, chimney sweeping and the preparation of a rescue plan.
Safety of the housing company
The entire community of residents, the owner of the building and the board of directors of the housing company are responsible for the safety of the housing company.
In a housing company, the activities of each resident affect the safety of many other people.
The housing company is responsible, for example, for mapping the risks of the housing company and drawing up a rescue plan based on them, informing residents of the rescue plan and giving residents the necessary instructions for handling accidents and dangerous situations.
The property owner is also responsible for winter maintenance of the property, such as snow removal, de-icing and sanding. In addition to courtyard areas, the property owner is also responsible for ensuring that snow falling from the roof does not cause dangerous situations to people passing by or to property.
Resident of a housing company: By acting correctly, you can save your neighbour’s life. Handle fire carefully, keep the smoke detector in working order and use common areas correctly. Close the fire doors behind you and store things in the right places. If the smoke alarm sounds next door, try to find out quickly if it is a real fire and call the emergency number 112 for help.
Handbook for fire safety in housing companies
Emergency plan on the SPEK website
Emergency access road
The emergency access road is a driveway or other means of access enabling emergency vehicles, in the event of a fire or other emergency, to come sufficiently close to the building and to the outlets for extinguishing water.
Property owners and occupants and business and industrial operators must, for their part, ensure that emergency access roads are kept serviceable and free of obstructions and that they are also otherwise in such a condition that they can be used in a safe and efficient manner.
The emergency access road is specified as early as the building permit stage. An area cannot be marked as an emergency access road by just anyone. An emergency access road must meet certain criteria, which can be found in the instructions for planning and implementing an emergency access road.
You can find more information about the planning of and requirements for emergency access roads in the planning and implementing instructions.
Fire safety of garages
In the instructions below, you can find the views of Uusimaa rescue departments on the fire safety of garages:
Fire safety instructions for garages
