Fire Safety Essentials For Organisations

If you run your own business and are responsible for a shop, salon or an office, you must be aware of the various fire safety legislations to ensure maximum safety for your customers and employees.

We’ll be looking at several fire safety essentials for organisations and how you can identify such hazards to prevent a fire starting.

Top fire hazards and risks

Identifying potential issues within your organisation’s premises is the first step to preventing a fire hazard. Common fire risks include:

• Electrical equipment
• Smoking
• Electrical faults
• Irons
• Hair tools such as straighteners, curlers etc.
• Rubbish piles
• Large stock supply

Fires can often occur when lighting or other electrical equipment is placed too close to flammable materials. Electrical power and industrial cables from suppliers such as RS must be regularly checked and maintained to prevent the likelihood of any accidents happening.

The smoking area at your workplace must be regularly monitored, too. Cigarettes can often be disposed of carelessly, which could potentially lead to a piece of rubbish being set alight by accident.

What are the legal requirements concerning fire safety?

Many business owners believe that fire safety is the landlord’s responsibility as they own the premises. They do have to adhere to structural regulations, but it’s the tenant’s responsibility to carry out a fire risk assessment in the workplace.

This includes identifying potential hazards and working on ways to prevent a fire from happening. You’ll need to determine how people can easily evacuate the building and the measures you’ll put in place to control such fire.

You’ll also need to learn how you’ll alert everyone in the building and what fire safety training you’ll need to carry out to your employees. Be sure to have the correct procedures in place for those staff and customers who are most vulnerable.

Having a fire strategy in place is imperative for you and your business. Failing to do so could see you in court and potentially leave you with a hefty fine to pay.

How can organisations prevent accidents from happening?

If you can’t remove a fire risk completely, you should be looking at ways to prevent an accident from happening, staying vigilant at all times.

For example, you should always be aware of the products and substances you are using, particularly in your production line. If possible, be sure to store any flammable materials separately or off-site completely to reduce the risk of these making contact with other products.

It’s important to have the correct waste disposable processes in place, too. Piles of rubbish that are easily accessible to the public could encourage arson. They could also catch light by accident, so try to review this regularly to prevent this from happening.