The fourth common cause of fires we’ll cover in this post is outdated Fire Risk Assessments.
A fire risk assessment is one of the most effective ways to manage and reduce the risk of fires in any workplace. They can help organisations identify fire hazards and implement safety measures based upon them, helping everyone stay safe from fires on site. Conducting fire risk assessments is also a legal requirement for organisations according to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just complete a single risk assessment and leave it displayed for the next few years, as It’s also your responsibility to keep the fire risk assessment up to date. That means conducting a new assessment regularly, whether it be every 6 months or annually, and also making a new assessment whenever there’s a significant change to the workplace. This could include when you acquire new equipment, new flammable materials, or move to a new site entirely.
If you need a team member on site to conduct regular fire risk assessments, you can get them trained quickly and effectively with Phoenix’s Fire Risk Assessment Training course. Available in-house and through e-Learning, the course gives students all the skills they need to conduct effective risk assessments.
Arson is a form of criminal damage, so you may not think there's much your organisation can do to reduce the risk, should it be targeted by an arson attack. However, there are a few key safety measures you can take to both reduce the risk of arson attacks occurring, as well as reduce the potential damage of a fire caused by an arson attack. These are:
Keeping flammable materials out of open areas. As we mentioned when discussing flammable materials, it’s best to store them in independent buildings or containers. If left out in the open, they can be a prime target for attempted arson.
CCTV or motion sensors. Using surveillance can help you identify any suspicious persons on or around the site. This can help deter criminals, as well as helping you identify the perpetrators in the event of an arson attack.
Monitoring site access. By limiting site access and monitoring who is present at any given time, you can reduce the chance of unauthorised individuals gaining access to your premises, reducing the risk of arson attacks in the process.
There are many ways to prevent and reduce the risk of workplace fires. We’ve touched on several already:
Store flammable materials safely and sensibly, tidying away or disposing of scrap paper and cardboard, and keeping flammable fuels or chemicals contained separately or off site.
Conduct regular fire risk assessments. These help you identify fire hazards, evaluate the level of risk they pose, and propose suitable safety measures to reduce that risk.
Maintain equipment and electricals on site, carrying out PAT tests and regular checks to make sure everything is functioning correctly, with no damaged cables or wires.
And finally, providing your team with effective fire safety training. Doing so can help reduce the risk of fires in your workplace and keep your team members safe. Phoenix offers a range of Fire Safety training courses and qualifications, suitable for a wide variety of industries.
Completable in just four days, the NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety, covers detailed knowledge and guidance on fire safety for anyone working in low to medium risk workplaces. This includes how to design emergency evacuation procedures, conduct fire risk assessments and how to reduce the risk of fires in the workplace. It's the ideal qualification for your primary fire safety marshal or health and safety expert to take, helping to demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to reducing the risk of fires and protecting everyone on your premises.
It's recommended that you should have a fire marshal for every 50 employees working on your site. While they may not need all the knowledge from the NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety, they still need to know how to handle evacuations in the event of a fire and identify fire hazards in the workplace. Phoenix’s Fire Marshal Training provides this expertise and more in just a 90-minute e-Learning or half-a-day of in-house training.
As required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, your organisation should conduct regular fire risk assessments to reduce the risk of fires in the workplace. You can train several members of your team to conduct them with Phoenix’s Fire Risk Assessment Training course. It can be completed in just 90 minutes via e-Learning, giving you an easy to ensure you’ll always have someone on site to conduct fire risk assessments.
Even if most members of your team do not have any specific fire safety responsibilities, it’s still your responsibility as a leader and employer to provide them with health and safety training. Phoenix’s Fire Safety Awareness Training is the perfect choice for this and is perfect for new starter packages. It teaches delegates how fires occur and what to do should one break out. By keeping all members of your team educated on fire safety, they’ll know what to do in the event of a fire, helping reduce the risk of injury and accident during emergency procedures and evacuations.
A: Two of the wall sockets in your office have broken. However, several members of the team need to urgently charge their laptops and phones. They decide to use an extension lead and plug it into a nearby socket, allowing them to charge 5 devices at once using a single plug.
B: Your business has recently moved into a different office. The building is a historic one, and upon arriving on the first day, you realise the wiring and electrics have not been updated in over 25 years. You make a note to contact the owners of the office block at some point this week to get the wiring replaced, but let your team continue to work as usual, as you wouldn't want the business suffering as a result.
C: While on your lunch break there's a power cut. After going to investigate you see that the fuses have tripped and reset them. However, knowing this is a sign they may need to undergo maintenance, you contact a professional electrician to come in and test the fuse later that week.
Answer:
Scenarios A and B could both lead to electrical fires in the workplace. In scenario A, the overloaded plug socket could cause the wiring to melt or catch fire. In scenario B, when someone uses an appliance that requires electrical power, it could cause the outdated wiring to ignite, as it’s not been updated to suit modern electrical equipment.
If you want to know which fire safety courses will be best for your team, or have any questions about fire safety, speak to a member of our team today.
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