Many businesses around the country are at an increased risk of a fire breaking out but they don’t realise that they are. These businesses are taking a massive risk because you cannot underestimate the amount of damage that would occur if a fire was to break out. Of course, you have the literal damage that the fire itself would cause. Yet, you also have to consider the damage this would cause financially and with regards to your reputation. If the fire could have been avoided then you may have problems with your insurance. Not only this, but you will undoubtedly be shut for a while and thus you will be losing out on making money. People will also potentially lose trust with your company because a fire can harm the reputation of a business as individuals begin to speculate about the cause of it.
As mentioned, a lot of business owners are oblivious to how safe their premises are. The main reason for this is the fact that they have not used the services of a fire safety consultant. Every business needs to enlist the help of an expert in order to ensure their business operates at optimum levels of safety. After all, these consultants know everything there is to know about health and safety as well as the regulations. Unless trained in the area, it is impossible to know how to achieve peak levels of fire safety.
When hiring a fire safety consultant one of the first things that they will do is carry out a full risk assessment of your premises. If there are hazards and a fire breaks out, people will look for a firm that offers experienced legal representation to make a claim against you. When they do this they will look at a vast array of different things. They will assess the fire prevention methods you have in place; they will see whether you are using the best alarm systems, and whether or not your emergency lighting is substantial enough. They will also assess your fire extinguishers – if you have enough and if they are in the right place. They will look at your fire doors and the escape methods that are available. And they will assess your general overall safety management. Once they have done this they will draw their conclusions regarding how safe your premises are. And of course, they will give you the advice needed to move forward and ensure that you operate at the ultimate safety levels.
Another problem a lot of businesses have is the fact that their employees have not been trained in fire safety. If you ask a lot of employees around the country what they would do if a fire broke out at work, most of them would not know the answer. If your employees have not had proper fire health and safety training then you should get the fire safety consultant to carry out a training session with your members of staff.
Some fire prevention tips you will learn
Fire prevention is important. We are often taught about how to use a fire extinguisher, how to practise fire drills, how to deal with a fire once it has begun or the best ways to evacuate everyone from the building and so on and so forth. However, ensuring a fire doesn’t start to begin with is clearly the most important aspect, yet this information is something that a surprising number of people are uneducated on.
Firstly, fire prevention begins with an understanding of your surroundings; from schools to your company’s premises. Let’s say you run an IT firm for example. You need to know that your premises is structured in such a way that you aren’t causing a risk of fire. For instance, you may have too many high powered servers stacked together without any methods of cooling. This could cause a risk and if a fire was to breakout because of it then you would be at fault – even though it would have been unintentional. The best way to know whether your premises is safe or not is to enlist the help of professionals. When you embark on your fire warden training they will be able to come to your company and assess it properly. They will inform you of any hazards that need to be dealt with to guarantee the chances of a fire breaking out are minimised as much as possible.
Nevertheless, you do not only need to ensure that your business is laid out in such a way that hazards are avoided, you also must educate your employees too. They could be behaving in such a way which could lead to the possibility of fire. This is especially important in high danger industries, such as those whereby chemicals are utilised frequently. Of course you would expect everyone to know the basics of what can lead to a fire. However, it is not always black and white, and you would be surprised by how many people do not have such knowledge. It is up to you to provide it. All staff should have fire warden training and the professional in question should give them a key lists of don’ts to guarantee they are not enhancing the chances of a fire breaking out.
Make sure your business premises are safe. Nobody wants to fall victim to a fire, yet a lot of people are still oblivious to the necessary safety measures. Hire a fire safety consultant to ensure this does not apply to you.