Within the last year, there have been over 150,000 fires in the UK, according to the Home Office. It’s easy to think that a fire wouldn’t start on your business site, but fires in the workplace are more common than you think. Often started from faulty electrical appliances and general negligence, the majority of these could have been avoided if the right preventative measured were carried out.
By assigning safe, dedicated smoking areas around your workplace, you are significantly preventing the risk of fire in the workplace. Smoking should never be allowed in non-ventilated areas, storage rooms or areas with chemical or flammable materials. Just a spark from a cigarette could result in a fire. Protect your business and employees by promoting dedicated smoking areas with signs, good communication and cigarette only bins.
Not only will CCTV cameras aid your business’ security strategy, but they will also help you to quickly identify any risks, sparks or the start of a fire. With good CCTV surveillance, you will be able to prevent a fire from occurring in the first place by identifying hazards, or put the fire out before it gets out of hand. A CCTV system allows you to monitor all areas of your business and acts as your eyes and ears when you’re not there and will help prevent fires in the workplace.
Electrical hazards are the number one cause of workplaces fires. Make sure all employees are instructed and regularly reminded of the importance of reporting electrical hazards or if something isn’t working as it should. Reporting electrical faults as soon as possible, will not only prevent fires in the workplace but will also improve the safety of employees when operating the equipment.
Once reported, it is imperative that the business acts quickly to sort and fix the electrical hazard to prevent a fire hazard.
Similar to the above, electrical appliances that are not working properly can cause a great fire risk. To prevent this, make sure to have regular maintenance visits and checks on all appliances to guarantee they are all in working order and not proposing a fire risk in the workplace.
Having a fire alarm system that doesn’t work properly or at all, is a major fire risk that is very easy to prevent. With regular weekly testing, you can guarantee that your system will carry out its necessary actions if a fire did occur, giving you an increased chance of stopping it spread and get out of hand.
An effective way to prevent fires in the workplace is to start with your employees. If staff are aware of the potential hazards and trained accordingly on how to prevent them, you will have an overall safer and fire preventative aware workforce. With high quality training, you can have confidence that your employees will not only know how to prevent fires but also what to do in the event of a fire starting.
BusinessWatch offers multiple fire safety training courses to keep your business and team safe, as well as helping you to prevent fires in the workplace.
For a free quotation or more advice on how we can help you prevent fires in the workplace, please get in touch on 0330 094 7404, or online here.
