Fire Safety In The Workplace

If you are a business owner who has recently opened up your first office, there are a lot of different things you will need to consider. Now that you are an employer you are responsible for every employee who works for you.

This can mean that you offer them health benefits such as dental or optical work, you will set up a pension fund for everyone who works for you, and you will also be in charge of keeping them safe as they are on your premises.

The important of health and safety in the workplace is huge and you need to make sure that you have a solid plan in place to keep everyone who works for you safe and healthy. This can include watching videos on lifting heavy objects. It could be that you have regular fire drills and even make sure that they know how to meditate for their mental health.

One of the biggest risks in any workplace is a fire, it is absolutely essential that you take the time to come up with an effective fire safety plan within the workplace and implement it with enthusiasm. This will include mapping out emergency exits, carrying out fire alarm servicing and also make sure that you have some specialist fire safety employee in the workplace.

The first thing you will need to do is eliminate fire hazards:

• Damaged electrical equipment such as cords, cables, plus sockets and outlets
• Overloaded sockets
• Flammable material in unsafe places for example an overfilled bin
• Objects blocking fire exits
• A dirty ventilation system and untidy office

Once you have dealt with all of the potential threats to your workplace, you will need to start making plans for the event of an emergency. This is a crucial step in fire safety because everyone needs to know what to do in the event of a fire:

Follow protocol

• Have maps of fire exits in every room of the building
• Make sure everyone has access to fire extinguishers
• Ensure that fire and smoke alarms are installed and in the right place to detect a fire
• Conduct fire drills once a month to make sure that employees know what to do
• Appoint one member of staff to take the register when leaving the building

Every employee in the workplace should be taught the right way to work and how to avoid potentially hazardous situations. For example:

• Make sure they know procedures, exits and how to use a fire extinguisher
• Provide escape for disabled employees
• Show them how to empty the crumb tray in the toaster to prevent fire
• Make sure they report damaged cables immediately
• Make sure they keep drinks well away from their electrical equipment

By following these simple guidelines, you employees will lower the risk of anything happening dramatically and they will also stay safe without you having to be there all of the time. Once you have your effective fire safety plan in place you can relax in the knowledge that if anything happens, you are prepared.