PRESS RELEASE: Firefighters launch a new safety app to simplify and speed up large scale evacuations often by more than 65%

Firefighters launch new safety app to simplify and speed up large-scale evacuations often by more than 65%

With a view to saving more lives and reducing injuries with calm streamlined emergency evacuation management, firefighters Matt Jullienne and Dean Broadwood invented R U OUT. R U OUT is an emergency evacuation app that streamlines incident management with real-time communications between fire wardens, facility managers and emergency responders evacuating people generally more than 65% faster and with fewer injuries. A faster evacuation means not only more lives saved but also less costly business downtime, especially on test evacuations. With the reduction of business downtime by more than 65% that would be a saving of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

While most buildings have emergency evacuation plans in place, in many instances it will still take too long to get people out, due to the manual approach sites currently use. For example, a 50-level building can take up to 2.5 hours to evacuate and re-occupy for an exercise.

After observing the potentially life-threatening challenges associated with large-scale evacuations and reporting to first responders, firefighters and emergency training consultants Matt Jullienne and Dean Broadwood put their heads together and created R U OUT, a first of its kind incident response app.

‘During our emergency response work as firefighters and as consultants implementing emergency plans and supervising major evacuation drills, we recognised common shortfalls with safety communications and reporting and personnel accountability,’ says Matt Jullienne. ‘At best, these shortfalls can slow down evacuations and subsequent building re-entry; at worst, they endanger lives.

‘R U OUT is an easy-to-use platform tailored to each workplace enabling simple, fast and accurate communication between an emergency management team. Real-time reporting means the evacuation team know where everyone is at any given time, and accurate information can be passed on to emergency services for a faster response in life-threatening situations.’

Tony, the Night Manager & Chief Warden at a popular hotel chain in Melbourne, says R U OUT not only saved significant time in a recent drill but gave him peace of mind. ‘When my hotel recently had to evacuate, I received over 100 confirmations that guests had left the building within three minutes of the alarms sounding. The Fire Brigade couldn’t thank me enough!’

R U OUT utilises technology to move evacuations from manual to managed, with countless other benefits that make life easier and safer:

● Reduce costly business downtime by reducing the time taken for evacuation often saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
● Get the job done with less staff: recent trial evacuated with just 1 Chief Warden instead of multiple.
● Fast and immediate incident reporting: Anyone can notify the chief warden of an incident and the app can be used to record audio and photos, and automatically generate an incident report.
● Manage on the go: Wardens can manage incidents from their smartphone on the move.
● Manage anytime anywhere: Offsite? Get notified and manage an incident anytime anywhere.

‘R U OUT has huge benefits for me as Chief Warden,’ Tony says. ‘With R U OUT the moment I am notified of an incident on my smartphone, I can begin the coordination whilst on the move.’

Find out about simplifying and improving the efficiency and safety of your Evacuation Procedures with R U OUT – visit: ruout.com.au

R U OUT: Save time, save lives.