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In the US, we find that a fire department responds to an emergency call every 23 seconds, which may include false alarms as well as assistance required for medical help. The USFA (United States Fire Administration) proclaims that there were over 1.3 million reported fires in 2017, which resulted in 3,400 fatalities and a total loss of $23 billion in damages to property. Their report also included that the primary suspect for non-residential fires was cooking, careless behavior, and intentional acts. While non-residential fires account for only 8.3% of all reported fire hazards, it is the fires that originate in an open region that take the significant chunk and comprise 42.8% of all fire outbursts. Nevertheless, combating fire hazards in enclosed spaces and especially offices and workplaces, is extremely important. There are human lives at stake as well as valuable property and information that a company or a business has worked hard to protect. In this post, we would like to provide you a quick guideline as to how you should go about managing fire hazards at workplaces. So let’s take a rapid look at how you can contest against such a vulnerability within workplaces.
Taking Precautions is an Obligation
There is no doubt that many fire outbursts at workplaces often result due to a lack of proper housekeeping and an untidy workplace. In this particular scenario, the company must mandate that all combustible items and waste should be removed from the workplace immediately. Furthermore, all ignition sources should be handled with extreme care and should be kept away from flammable items at all times. However, the most significant effort that you need to put in is to derive a fireproof plan or emergency scenario strategy. This plan clearly states what your employees need to do in case of a fire emergency and how should they treat it. There are specific vital responsibilities, and what each employee must do. This is followed up with a fool-proof evacuation plan that can get each personnel of your organization towards a safe zone where they can recollect while firefighters and other professional services arrive to deal with the problem. This also takes into account the installation of fire and smoke detectors throughout the vicinity of your organization, as well as placing fire extinguishers and buckets of sands at easy to approach and accessible areas to put out less dangerous outbursts of fires. However, you need to train people about the threat of treating wildfires at the workplace with water, which is never a good idea. Their best choices to put out the fire are fire extinguishers and sand buckets.
Give Training to Your Employees
While technology can evidently help us in detecting and avoiding potential risks before they become out of control, there is no doubt that your most prized assets are undoubtedly your workers. Hence your first priority should be to ensure their safety and wellbeing above all other things. We strongly recommend that you offer them custom FR uniforms, gears, and other equipment so that they can protect themselves in case there is a fire outbreak at your offices. However, even before that, you can start offering them reasonable training to prevent such occurrences from happening in the first place. Side by side, you should also conduct practice and mock fire drills and their rehearsals. This will enable them to become aware of the right passage and way out to choose in case something of that nature does happen in real life. You can also offer training to your employees through webinars and seminars specifically dealing with subjects like their health and wellbeing in case a fire erupts, and they have to combat indoor smoke with poor ventilation. There can be a million objectives for which you can offer them training when it comes to keeping themselves and others safe during the event where there is a fire outbreak at the workplace.
We hope this post was able to provide you a better understanding regarding how you can help your employees and workforce to overcome potential fire hazards and combat them during work hours. However, we strongly recommend that you keep all emergency numbers in quick dial so that if by any chance an event like this does occur, you can instantly reach out to authorities and emergency services to overcome the hazard in a professional manner. For more questions regarding the subject, please feel free to let us know your views in the comment section below.
