Fire safety is an essential aspect of modern health and safety protocols in the workplace, and for a good reason. Unless adequately managed, it causes untold damage to property and human life. This post will discuss the importance of fire safety in order to keep your employees and business safe and compliant with relevant laws.

By Team Savant

Why Is Fire So Dangerous?

Although this seems like an obvious question on its face, many people are unaware of how fire can be dangerous. In most cases, injuries stem from smoke inhalation, lack of oxygen, and building damage rather than the actual fire itself. Smoke inhalation is one of the significant dangers people face during fire emergencies. It leads to respiratory damage and can cause death if not treated immediately. Furthermore, because fire uses oxygen to burn, those stuck in burning buildings often find themselves passing out due to asphyxiation.

Additionally, injuries can also occur as a result of structural damage. Heat and fire can cause serious structural damage to a building, making injury or death a very real danger. As you can see, there are many ways to face risk from a fire that doesn't involve the actual fire, thus making safety a key priority of all businesses no matter their industry.

Why Is Fire Safety In The Workplace Important?

There are many ways that fire can start, and it can be caused by anything from electrical issues to flammable materials. It is crucial to make sure that your workplace is as safe as possible, and you should make sure that everyone knows what they should do in case of a fire. This can include installing fire protection solutions and training your employees to act if a fire breaks out. In some jurisdictions, there are stringent fire safety regulations that aim to protect people and property from the worst of the damage.

How Can You Improve Awareness Via Training?

Fire safety is not just about preventing fires as they arise but also about preventing injuries and fatalities and teaching employees the correct practices for identifying risks. The best way to prevent fires is through proper fire prevention methods like having an escape plan, reducing the number of combustible materials, having enough fire extinguishers in strategic locations, and having regular inspections of the premises by qualified personnel. An integral part of fire safety training is educating people on ways to avoid fires and deal with fires when they occur. Among other things, they learn the basics of fire safety and how to respond to emergencies. The training can be conducted by instructors or even by designated employees who have been professionally trained. Students are taught basic things like fire prevention, different types of fires, and what to do in an emergency.

How To Identify Fire Risks

In order to prevent fires, it is crucial to identify fire risks, which is why a fire risk assessment is a key step in the planning process. Fire risk assessments are conducted before any construction or renovation work starts, and they help determine if the work will increase the risk of a fire. There are five steps to a fire risk assessment.

Identify Hazards

Generally speaking, a fire needs three things to start:

An ignition source
Fuel to burn
Oxygen to keep it alive

For a fire to be a threat, it needs all of these aspects in place. This means that you should take measures to reduce the chances of all three of these things getting together. Obviously, you cannot prevent oxygen, but it is possible to reduce the chances of ignition from things like faulty wiring, etc. It's also wise to reduce the number of combustible materials like paper or flammable liquids or gasses in one location.

Identify Employees At High Risk

This could include those who work alone or in isolated environments. These people are more at risk of danger as it can take help longer to reach them than others. Furthermore, those with disabilities might find it challenging to escape in the event of a fire. However, this can be a sensitive topic, so you should discuss any concerns you might have with them to come to an acceptable solution for everyone involved.

Evaluate, Remove, Reduce and Protect From Risk

These four steps are used to discover any issues that might be a risk and reduce them wherever feasible.

Evaluate: You should evaluate the risk of a fire occurring in your business, such as by accident or negligence. Furthermore, you should determine the risk to everyone involved.
Remove: Once you have sufficiently discovered the most common potential causes of fire, you can begin to remove the threats from the environment.
Reduce: If you cannot remove some of the threats, you should examine how to reduce the dangers they pose. For instance, you could set up fire alarms or sprinklers throughout the organization.
Protect: Your main priority is to protect your employees from dangers. As such, you should have clearly marked fire exits and other fire prevention measures in place.

Record, Plan, Inform, Instruct, and Train

You should record any threats you have found but are required for business operations and cannot be removed. This will enable you to take preventative measures and make everyone aware of risks. Planning involves setting up emergency plans in case a fire breaks out. You must inform your staff and all relevant parties about your steps and what to do in an emergency. Finally, ongoing training should be required, and occasional fire drills conducted to check the effectiveness of your risk assessment.

Review Procedures

After you have completed your risk assessment, the process doesn't end there. Fire safety is an ongoing process, and people being infallible as they are, tend to forget what they have learned and become indifferent to the dangers. Therefore, you should perform a risk assessment at predetermined times throughout the year and ensure that all new and current staff receive adequate recurring training.

Fire safety is not something to be taken lightly. Fire can injure, kill and destroy businesses. However, with the correct processes in place, you can massively reduce the chance of catastrophe.

The Main Reasons Why Fire Safety Is Important