In early 2020, 26 percent of businesses in Australia were affected by the rampant bushfires. Fires can be dangerous for your business and your employees, so it is important to learn how you can stay safe.
Create a Fire Evacuation Plan
One of the most important things you can do to stay safe during a fire is to create an evacuation plan. While there are many things you can do to prevent fires in your business, you may still experience a fire. To keep your employees safe, create an emergency plan that will allow you to leave the building safely.
When you know what to do in an emergency, it is a lot less stressful and your employees and customers will stay safer. If you work with a fire prevention team, they will help you create a plan that will keep you safe.
Make sure everyone in your business knows several exits to get out of the building and that you have a place to meet up. If you all meet in the same area, it will be easier to identify people who were unable to make it out of the building.
This will assist the firemen responding to your emergency to find and evacuate anyone else in the building. By working with fire protection professionals, you can ease your stress and be confident in your safety.
Find Ways to Prevent Fires
Something that is just as important as learning how to evacuate in a fire, is learning how to prevent a fire in your business. Having a fire prevention plan will allow you to eliminate risks that may lead to fire for your business. These may be things that could catch on fire easily, any electronics with heating elements, or even equipment that may spark or catch fire.
When you identify these problem areas, you can make changes that will prevent them from causing fires in the future.
It is also important to have the equipment, such as a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher, that can be used in your office. These can help stop smaller fires and can prevent extreme damage.
Train Your Employees
To ensure everyone understands each of the steps in your evacuation plan, it’s important that you train your employees on how they can use safety equipment.
By giving a demonstration of how to properly use a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket, they will be more confident when they have to use them in emergencies.
It’s essential that you actually practice your evacuation plan. While your employees may understand each of the steps, you must run through this plan several times to make sure everyone thoroughly understands it.
These fire training procedures can help keep your employees safe during an emergency.
Install Fire Safety Equipment
One of the many things you can do to help prevent fires in your workplace is to install fire safety equipment.
One simple way you can prevent fires is by installing fire protection sprinkler systems. These are automatic sprinklers that turn on in the event of a fire. Not only do they help slow the spread of a fire, but they can save the lives of your employees and customers.
Fire protection sprinkler systems also help to prevent further losses and damage to your business. It is an easy and low-maintenance way to prevent fires from spreading.
Other types of fire safety equipment are smoke detectors. While these may not be able to prevent a fire, they can alert you to the problem and will give you more time to evacuate the building.
Finally, as mentioned before, you must have fire extinguishers and other fire retardants in an easily accessible area. If your employees know how to operate them, they can put out the fire before it spreads.
Have Fire Insurance
Because you cannot always prevent fires, fire insurance is a great way to protect your business and employees from fire damage.
Not only will fire insurance cover your physical property and any damages that occur, but it can also cover the earnings you lose from the business interruption.
Having fire insurance is a great way to keep your business afloat during the difficulties of fire damage.
Stay Safe From Fire With Fire Safety Systems Today
Because fires are so common and affect many businesses in Australia, you must take proper precautions to keep you and your employees safe in an emergency. Not only is it important to learn how you can prevent fires, but you must learn what to do if there is a fire in your business.
If you need help creating a fire safety plan to stay safe from fire, you may want to turn to afire protection professionals. They can help you stay safe from fires, install fire protection systems, and more.
