How Will Your Company Respond to a Fire?
Fire is one of the biggest risks to your business, but how much do you do to guard against it and mitigate the damage that fire on your premises could cause? With fire often seeming a remote possibility, it can be easy to concentrate on maintaining your commercial advantage and growing your business rather than protecting your premises, but that could be a serious error. Taking adequate fire protection measures, including arranging for fire warden training, is a legal responsibility as well as common sense.
What's involved in fire protection?
Protecting your business from a fire will involve every aspect of your company. Some areas that you must bear in mind include:
- How well will the fabric of your building withstand a fire? Think about the materials used in the construction of the building, and then think about the placement of fire doors within the building and how effectively they could prevent the spread of the fire.
- Is there adequate fire fighting equipment on hand? Preventing a fire from starting or spreading is important, but if your staff are faced by a fire, then they will need to have the tools to help them survive. Your equipment requirements will vary depending on your premises and your business type, but you must have the right number and type of fire extinguishers as well as fire blankets, sprinkler systems and similar fire fighting aids.
- In addition to the fabric of the building and adequate provision of equipment, it is vital to think about the way your employees use the building. Are there any fire hazards developing as a result of employee action? Perhaps fire doors are left wedged open? Maybe there are piles of paperwork stored near a heat source, or a corridor is blocked, preventing an easy escape from the building? All of these issues could aid the spread of a fire or hinder your staff from escaping from a burning building.
Each of these fire control aspects is vital, but what ties them all together is having the right people who have taken fire warden training and know how to respond in the event of a fire. Arranging for fire warden training is the best way to protect both your people and your premises. The training will include both theory and practical sessions and cover everything your new fire wardens need to know to ensure that if a fire strikes, your team are ready to respond.
It is important that every person carefully considers the types of building products they use when building a new home. After all, the environment only has a finite amount of resources it can provide us, and once those are gone they cannot be replaced. To protect the environment, I recently built a home using sustainable building products. This means the products used are either recycled or come from renewable sources. My blog posts cover the different types of products you can use like reclaimed timber and bamboo. When it is time to build your next home, make a conscious effort to reduce your impact on the environment by making sustainable choices of your own.