Fire safety

General fire safety:

 

All dormitory apartments have an evacuation route map on the apartment hallway wall, next to apartment door. It shows the closest evacuation route to your apartment. All tenants are required to familiarize themselves with this route and use it in case of a fire alarm / other emergency, when evacuation of the building is required.

In case of an emergency, the fire alarm will sound and it will not be turned off. Member(s) of staff will check location of the emergency and instruct all tenants to evacuate the building if needed. In case of an alarm, all elevators in the building will automatically go down to dormitory lobby and open their doors. It will not be possible to call the elevators back up until alarm shuts off. Tenants will need to use closest emergency staircase to exit. All corridor doors will be automatically unlocked during the alarm to allow for safe exit.

In case of a fire in the apartment, make sure to leave the apartment door closed after exiting - it is a fire safety door and keeping it closed will help stop the spread of fire. Apartment windows should also be kept closed for the same reason.

Every time a fire alarm is triggered in the dormitory, Estonian Resque Board sends out a firefighter brigade to check the building and ensure the safety of our tenants.

 

 

Cooking safety:

 

There is an instruction manual in Estonian and English near all stoves in the dormitory (on the kitchen wall). These safety instructions need to be followed precisely in order to avoid fire alarms being falsely triggered.

In every kitchen, there is a fire blanket hanging on the wall which can be pulled out and used in case of a smaller fire. There are instruction pictograms on the blanket. The blanket can only be used once so if it is used, please inform a member of staff immediately. Do not put it back in the bag!



Important things to remember when cooking:
 

  • Do not put the stove heat settings on too high - this will help you avoid burning your food.
  • Clean the stove regularly from grease to avoid it burning and creating smoke.
  • Never leave a stove unattended while cooking!
    90% of false fire alarms in the dormitory are triggered when tenants leave the kitchen during cooking, get distracted and the food burns.
  • Always turn on the air ventilation above the stove when you start cooking (it doesn't make a noise when turned on, but it opens the air vents). Clean the ventilation filter twice a year to ensure it works.
  • If there is already smoke in the kitchen, DO NOT OPEN DOORS until the smoke has cleared a little bit into the air ventilation. If you open the doors immediately, the smoke will trigger the bedroom and hallway smoke sensors, which are very sensitive.
  • Never cover the fire alarms in your apartment or remove them yourself - this will result in a 50€ fine and it's a huge fire safety hazard in a high-rise building. It should be reported to the manager if someone does this.
  • Never use water to try and extinguish burning oil! In case of a fire, there is a FIRE BLANKET in every kitchen which you can use to try and put out a smaller fire. In case of a fire, the alarm will sound and firefighters will come to extinguish it.

 

False alarms:

 

  • If a tenant triggers the dormitory fire alarm due to carelessness (e.g. cooking instructions were not followed, fire safety rules were not followed), it is considered a false fire alarm. 
  • Since fire safety rules state that Estonian Resque Board is required to send out a brigade to check each dormitory fire alarm, the tenant who caused the false alarm, will be required to pay 50€ fine for compensation.
  • The responsible tenant will also be required to write an explanation letter to the community manager regarding when and why the alarm was triggered. This is to make sure that the tenant understands what they did wrong and knows to avoid the same situation in the future.
  • If the responsible tenant fails to comply with these requirements, they will be contacted personally by Estonian Resque Board representative and the dormitory has the right to end the rent contract for failure to comply with fire safety rules.

 

All apartment doors have an evacuation plan on them and you can also FIND THE EVACUATION MANUAL FOR "TORN" DORMITORY HERE