National Fire Prevention Month is observed every year in October. Like homes, business and office fire safety is critical to avoid damage to persons or property.
Read on to learn the best tips to maximize your business or office fire safety and keep your employees safe!
Establish Workplace Fire Safety Policies
Every business has fire hazards, but some have far more than others. If you work in an office environment, your most likely risks of fires are electrical malfunctions or equipment failure. These are unlikely, though still a risk. However, if your business is a restaurant or other facility that makes use of fire or heat-based tools, your risk goes up dramatically.
It’s important for every business to have proper procedures surrounding the use of any device or equipment that could potentially be a fire hazard. Set these expectations of safety as part of the on-boarding and training process to reinforce the importance both for new employees and those who train them!
Having practical business and office fire safety policies can make your employees feel more comfortable when working on site, in addition to the benefits of reduced risk of fires on the premises!
Update Your Building’s Fire Safety Features
Fire safety in the office or any other type of business starts with having a reliable set of fire safety features at the ready in case of emergency. Businesses of any size are one of the most dangerous places to be in during a fire. They’re commonly full of supplies or goods which can catch fire and spread quickly, and without proper alerting, critical evacuation paths may become inaccessible before occupants even know the fire is happening!
Habitec Security offers a wide variety of fire safety equipment for your business:
Smoke & Heat Detectors – Our professional installers can place detectors throughout your location to ensure the maximum coverage for potential smoke and heat sources to identify fire risks as soon as possible
Pull Stations – When a member of the staff or a customer identifies a fire risk, pull stations allow an instant alert for the entire building without waiting for an automated detector to trigger
Horn Strobes & Mass Notification – Alerting your business clearly and immediately is the difference between a safe evacuation and a dangerous situation. These alerts help occupants be informed instantly when an emergency takes place
Our full suite of fire and smoke alarm systems can come with additional features like networkable fire alarm control panels, voice evacuation and more. Learn more about our fire alarm systems for business.
Fire Extinguisher Check
In addition to having the right systems for fire prevention, proper business or office fire safety requires having fire extinguishers on hand that are reliable and accessible! Fortunately for most business owners, you can go decades without needing to use a fire extinguisher. On the other hand, this can cause some serious issues:
Expired Fire Extinguishers
Yes, fire extinguishers have use-by dates on them! With proper care, they tend to last around a decade. Every fire extinguisher comes with a date on a tag and also stamped onto the cylinder. Make sure that checking your fire extinguishers is part of your yearly office safety checklist.
If your extinguisher is nearing the end of its lifespan, replace it! An expired fire extinguisher may not be functional when it comes time to actually fight a fire. And the older an extinguisher gets without use, the more likely it may have been damaged from being moved around your location.
Accessibility
Do you know where your fire extinguishers are? Does your staff? A fire extinguisher is only useful if it’s accessible! Setting specific locations for your fire extinguishers is part of a good office fire prevention policy. This means no matter what happens, these devices stay in the set location – even if you redecorate or move office spaces around.
Once you’ve set these locations, make sure new employees are trained on where to find them and consider including these locations in your employee handbook. If you do need to move them for any reason, take care to update any training materials so new employees don’t look in the wrong place when time is of the essence!
Connect Your Fire & Security Systems
Smoke detectors and fire alarms work best when synchronized with your business’s monitored security system. With Habitec Security business monitoring, a triggered alarm sends an alert to our Central Station. If firefighters are needed, they can be contacted immediately.
In the event of a fire, every minute that passes can lead to massive increases in personal or property damage – the sooner the fire department is dispatched the better! By networking your security and fire systems together, you dramatically improve the response time for emergencies and reduce potential risks to your staff and clients.
Habitec Security’s NICET Certified Fire Technicians
We provide more than the equipment you need to protect your business, we also provide:
- Fire Alarm Testing
- Fire Safety Inspection
- Fire Safety Maintenance
With over 20 NICET certified fire technicians, every fire protection system we design for your business is code-compliant and designed to protect you against every fire hazard imaginable.
Contact Us Today to Secure Your Business!
Continue to keep your business safe! Our security experts can perform a security evaluation and provide custom-designed, integrated security solutions backed by award-winning, 24-hour local monitoring. Contact us today!
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