Fire escape hoods

Change request O.G. CC 109 was raised as a result of some user feedback, with analysis carried out on the instances of fire escape hoods, which currently appear in the following Operational Guidance components:

• Fires in buildings – Appropriate intervention: Fires in tall buildings
• Search, rescue and casualty care – Personal protective equipment: Rescues

Topics need to be included at the highest level of the Operational Guidance framework, in order that activity and tactics can be applied at any relevant incident. Therefore, the main content relating to the use of fire escape hoods should reside in the Operational Guidance for Operations, which contains the primary control measure for evacuation.

Any reference to the use of fire escape hoods in other pieces of Operational Guidance will provide a link to the content in the Operations control measure Evacuation and shelter.

The decision has also been made, with the agreement of the NFCC Protection team, that the terminology should be ‘fire escape hoods’ rather than ‘smoke hoods’ to differentiate them from PPE and other equipment.

In addition to the link shown above, minor changes have also been made to:

• Training Specification for Operations – Evacuation and shelter
• Operational Guidance for Search, rescue and casualty care – Personal protective equipment: Rescues

This change request was approved by the NFCC Operational Preparedness, Response and Resilience Committee on 24 April 2025.