These are the three most annoying things that can happen to a hard-working man or woman at work in an office:
- The coffee machine’s run out of coffee bags,
- Burning to a crisp or suffering horrible disfiguring injuries due to outdated electrical wiring in the walls, and
- Failing to save a page’s worth of text before an out-of-the-blue blackout.
(A quick note: The entries above aren’t necessarily in any order of priority.)
Jokes aside, fire safety is a very serious matter and this matter must be approached diligently by the employer, or whoever runs the office.
The thing is, electricity wires in some of the old buildings are ripe for changing, but this is not always done, (perhaps because your company’s only rented the building and is not the owner) so ensuring you and your employees are covered by an anti-fire safety system is of utmost importance for your well-being.
In this article, we’re going to talk about fire safety in the workplace and what improvement you, as the person in charge, can make to ensure everyone’s safety while at work.
Right then folks, without further ado, here’s the lot.
Top Fire Safety Tips in the Workplace
1) Come up with an Emergency Plan
The cornerstone of every company’s fire safety system should be the fact that there’s a plan in case things go awry.
So, if you haven’t already, it’d be wise to come up with an emergency plan that would account for different scenarios that can cause a fire. This plan must be well-rounded and should also include all of your employees and give them clear instructions of what to do in any individual case of a fire, or perhaps a fire about to happen. (If sparks are flying from a cord that got ripped and someone’s using a propane cooker in its vicinity.)
Also, this emergency plan should inform your employees how to get to safety if things become too dire to handle and control with a simple fire extinguisher.
2) Organize Fire Escape Routes
A fire escape route isn’t just some random corridor that you get to by sneaking through a back entrance that you made up from sticks just to make the health ‘n’ safety folks happy.
Fire escape routes are pathways of great importance for your company and your employees, because they can mean the difference between life and death when a disaster strikes. Therefore, make sure that all of your fire exits and escape routes are well-lit at all times, that they’re easily accessible, and that you have enough signs around the office pointing to it. (This is especially important if you have a large office with plenty of people.)
Last but not least, you should acquaint your employees with the location of these escape routes, as well as instruct them about what to do in case they ever need to use them.
3) Place a Certain Number of Fire Extinguishers Around Your Office
… and then create signs pointing to these around the office, as well.
The thing is, if we don’t count the obvious fire safety preventive measures such as installing good-quality, fire ducts the first line of defense against an office fire would be the fire extinguisher. This tool comes in many different versions, but all of them are designed to do one job and do it well – suffocate a fire by depriving it of oxygen.
So, depending on how large your office is, you want to make sure that you’ve installed enough fire extinguishers so that every patch is well-covered in case of an emergency.
4) Install a Fire-Detection System
Although having a fire-detection system installed in your office is pretty much an obligatory requirement for businesses nowadays, there’s always the question of what sort of fire system you have onboard.
The thing is, while fires in an office environment aren’t that common occurrences, it’d still be smart not to cheap out when buying a fire-detection system for your office. Some of the automatic systems will even sprinkle water from the ceiling, thus making the dangerous job of extinguishing a fire easier for the folks involved. (Whether it’s you and a couple of employees with a fire extinguisher or a team of firefighters.)
Whatever the system you’ve decided to go for, you should always take time to inform and appropriately train your employees in how these systems work, so that they can use them properly even if you aren’t around.
All in all, fire safety represents one of the most important health ‘n’ safety aspects you must take care of if you’re running a business. No matter if your office is in an old building or a new one, you should always undertake preventive measures against fires, train your employees on how to act in a fire emergency, as well as make sure there are plenty of fire extinguishers around.
This way, even if an accident involving a fire does happen, you and your team will be well prepared and much safer than if you ignore all the safety measures.
