Did you know that between 2010 and 2014, there were almost 7,500 fires in American offices?
Although it’s easy to think that it will never happen to you, making sure you and your entire team are familiar with fire safety in the workplace can help you prevent severe injuries, and even fatalities.
Keep reading to learn about six simple, yet essential fire safety tips!
1. Know Your Local Fire Code
Certain towns and communities have a specific set of fire safety rules that businesses must follow.
Knowing your local fire code and making sure you’re compliant with it will not only help you ensure that you and your employees know how to deal with a fire accident, but it will also keep you out of trouble in the event of an inspection.
2. Train Your Employees
As a business owner, you need to be familiar with fire safety tips like the ones we’re listing today.
However, unless you share this knowledge with your team members, you’ll never be as safe as possible. As such, it’s a good idea to hire safety training services to hold workshops from time to time and teach your employees how to contain a fire and protect themselves.
3. Make an Emergency Plan
Educating your employees on fire safety is a great idea, but the truth is that facing a real fire is a panic-inducing situation, and it’s easy to forget what you’ve learned in a workshop.
On the other hand, a step-by-step emergency plan, that you can create with the help of competent fire safety practitioners, can be easier to memorize and, therefore, apply in a real-life situation. Employers may wish to consider OSHA 10 online training to employees to cultivate a safety-minded workforce and mitigate workplace hazards before they incur injuries or cost.
4. Hold Periodic Fire Drills
There’s nothing like practicing to make sure you can memorize a step-by-step procedure, which is why fire drills are so important.
Our tip is that you hold at least one fire drill every year, or any time you make significant changes to your emergency plan. The most important thing is that you ensure everyone is familiar with the most updated version of the plan.
5. Learn How to Use a Fire Extinguisher
This is the type of things you and your employees will learn during a fire safety training session, but we thought it still deserved a special mention in our list.
After all, knowing how to use fire extinguishers can make a world of difference when you’re faced with a fire in your office. Additionally, make sure you have the best type of extinguisher for your business, and that they’re placed in the right spots.
6. Install Fire Detection Systems
When it comes to fire detection systems, you don’t have a choice: you simply need to have them in your office.
Make sure you have a high-quality system that is compliant with your local fire code, that is reliable and that is maintenance-friendly.
When your business needs the highest level of protection and monitoring, ACS Fire & Security is the best solution for you.
The Importance of Knowing These Fire Safety Tips
When it comes to fire accidents, one thing is for sure: it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Knowing these fire safety tips and, of course, sharing them with all your employees, you can make sure everyone is well-equipped to deal with a fire in the safest way possible.
