Fire safety: reconciling hardware and people

One of the facilities manager's continuing problems is meeting his responsibilities with respect to fire safety. In this field he is working with difficult legal requirements, fragmented among many local statutes, ad hoc standards and recommendations. To meet these requirements he must call upon his full range of skills. He must be able to balance a concern for hardware and technology with a need to ensure that building occupants are trained and that an effective fire plan is in existence.