Whatever your industry, managing fire safety in your business should be one of the top priorities. Here are a few considerations to help you understand the importance of choosing the right fire safety systems to comply with the Fire Safety Order. Knowing your responsibilities and abiding by the rules will allow you to keep your employees and your assets safe.

Why Is Fire Safety Important?

Fire safety is the way to ensure that both your employees and your workplace are protected in the event of a fire. As an employer, you are directly responsible for the safety of all individuals working for you. All these people are legally entitled to a safe working environment, free from hazards such as fire, floods, and noise pollution among other things.

Besides, this is a legal requirement all businesses must comply with. Disregarding this requirement may lead to huge fines and even to the shutting down of your operations.

By knowing what to do in the event of a fire in the workplace, your employees will be able to stay safe. The role of early fire warning systems is to make everyone in the building aware of the imminent danger.

The Law On Fire Safety

The first thing you must do to secure the fire safety of your business is to perform a fire risk assessment. This should enable you to identify areas in your building with the highest risk of fire. Then, you can take the appropriate measures to reduce and even eliminate this risk, in order for your employees to stay safe at work.

It is important that all these fire risk management measures are the result of a thorough fire assessment risk. Taking measures at random isn’t the best way to address such issues, so make sure that you do everything by the book.

Fire Safety Assessment Tips And Advice

You won’t be able to completely eliminate the fire risk. No law would actually require this. Nevertheless, there are several things you can do to ensure that you control, minimise or even eliminate the risk of injury or death in the event of a fire in the workplace.

Here are a few things you can do to manage fire safety in your business:

Plan for Emergencies

Plan for emergencies and ensure that all your employees are aware of the required actions in the event of such an emergency.

Provide Firefighting Equipment

Provide general firefighting equipment such as fire extinguishers, fire alarms, and fire blankets. Also, put in place a maintenance schedule, in order to ensure that all fire-fighting and fire alarm systems are fully operational at any given time.

Perform Regular Reviews

Perform regular reviews and updates of your risk assessment.

Fire Exits

Ensure that all fire exits are properly marked, so that people can find them with ease, even under pressure. Also, it is very important to ensure these exits are always unobstructed. If you can’t use the exists before removing furniture or piles of stuff, you’ll have a hard time at evacuating all people in the event of a fire.

Flammable Substances

If you use flammable substances in your work, make sure that you separate them from any sources of ignition.

Fire Alarm Drills

Conduct fire alarm drills at least once a year, in order to ensure that everyone in your office knows what to do in the event of a fire. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so don’t overlook the importance of these drills. As always, the old adage that says “practice makes perfect” applies in such circumstances. Nevertheless, inform your employees of these drills, in order to avoid creating panic.

If needed, ask a fire safety specialist to help you with all the above.