The Cal State San Marcos Building Marshal program was developed to facilitate the safe evacuation of campus buildings and to assist emergency responders. This program is staffed by trained campus employees who work in the individual classroom and office buildings throughout the campus. When an evacuation is necessary, the Building Marshals are responsible for:

Assisting in the safe and complete evacuation of a building.
Assisting University Police in preventing re-entry by non-emergency responders until the building has been deemed safe.
Reporting injured or trapped persons to emergency responders.

Building Marshals may be organized up to a three tiered structure depending on the building size and the available resources. Those roles include:

Program Coordinator

The Program Coordinator, in consultation with the Emergency Management Coordinator, is responsible for:

· Communication between the Building Marshals and the campus’ Emergency Operations Center.

· Coordinates Building Marshal training and provides general information to campus Building Marshals.

· Assists in the planning, training, equipping, recruiting, and effective response of the Cal State San Marcos Building Marshals.

Building Marshal

A Building Marshal is responsible for receiving all information regarding the status of their building’s evacuation from their building’s Floor Marshals.

Once the decision to evacuate is made, a Building Marshal will immediately respond to the designated evacuation gathering site and begin taking evacuation status reports from the Floor Marshals.

Using radio communications or by coordinating with University Police, the Building Marshal will report the status of their assigned area of responsibility to emergency responders.

Floor Marshals

Floor Marshals are responsible for clearing all people from an assigned floor. On floors where two or three individuals are designated as Floor Marshals, those Floor Marshals will be responsible for an assigned area. Once a sweep has been conducted, Floor Marshals will go to designated locations outside their building and report the status of their floor to the Building Marshal.

Example Evacuation

An earthquake has taken place in close proximity to the campus. The fire alarms have been activated indicating the need to evacuate the building. As a Floor Marshal, you will quickly sweep your assigned office suite or a predetermined section of your floor. Once completed, you will exit the building and report to your Building Marshal who will be stationed at the designated evacuation gathering site for your building. Inform the Building Marshal that your area has been evacuated and await further assignments.

As a Building Marshal, you will report to the designated evacuation gathering site for your building and wait for all of your Floor Marshals to report that their floors have been evacuated. Once the building is determined to be evacuated, you will report to the Building Marshal Program Coordinator via hand radio, that your building has been evacuated. As Floor Marshals make their way to the gathering site, you will re-assign them to cover all entry points to your building from a safe location to ensure no one attempts to re-enter the building until determined safe to do so.

The Building Marshals and Floor Marshals will proceed to conduct a head count in the designated evacuation gathering sites. The Building Marshals will then relay this information and any other concerns (i.e. occupants tapped) to the Building Marshal Program Coordinator. The Building Marshal Program Coordinator will then provide this information to the Incident Commander and Emergency Operations Center.