FIRE SAFETY FOR OFFICES

Offices come in all shapes and sizes, a small team with a handful of employees, or a giant corporate size team. You may have little to no visitors, or several a day.

Either way, fire safety should be taken seriously to ensure that your employees, visitors and your premises stay safe.

Fire risks in an office

Whether you have a small or large office, the fire risks are primarily the same, so the same high standards should be met.

Electrical Appliances

Generally, offices have a lot of electrical appliances present in the premises. This could be anything from computers/laptops, desk phones, printers, fax machines and more. These types of electrical appliances can become a fire risk if misused.

For example, an employee might decide to rest their laptop on the office sofa, this can block the in-built ventilation causing the laptop to overheat and burn or ignite the sofa.

Flammable materials

In an office, you are likely to come across a variety of different office supplies, some of which are flammable. For example, office supplies such as paper and packaging are flammable.

However, it’s not just office supplies that are flammable within an office. Furnishings like sofas are becoming more popular in offices, and these are usually made from highly flammable materials.

Preventing fire hazards in an office

Being able to prevent a fire from occurring in the first place is important to keep yourself, your employees and your premises safe.

Having the right equipment at hand if the worst was to happen is essential.

Fire risk assessment

All offices are different, so it’s important that your office carries out a fire risk assessment at your premises to determine what fire hazards are present and how best to combat them.

Fire safety equipment

To minimise the risks of a fire becoming out of control, you (and your staff) need to act fast. Fire safety equipment such as fire alarms and fire extinguishers can help you to do this.

Firstly, fire alarms will alert everyone at the first signs of a fire in your office, so an evacuation process can begin. If you are close to the site of the fire, having a fire extinguisher close by will help you tackle the blaze, that is providing it is the appropriate fire extinguisher to use.

Also, fire equipment needs to be regularly tested to ensure they are working, otherwise replacements will be needed immediately.

Fire safety training

Having your employees fire safety trained is important for their own safety and to help minimise the risks and damages a fire can cause.

Training will teach your employees the fire risks and hazards that are present within their office environment, so when they go back they should be able to recognise what’s fire-safe and what isn’t in the office.

It will also teach them the best practices for fire procedures such as evacuating their office, whether it’s in an office block, or a small building.

Keep your office fire-safe

With a lot of electricals and flammable materials causing fire risks in an office, it’s extremely important to keep your office environment fire-safe.

If you would like to explore options about fire safety in an office and see how we can help, contact us here or take a look at our Products & Services.

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