Fire Safety Hazards

Did you know that most fires are preventable? If you’re in charge of buildings that the public has access to, you need to ensure that they are fire safe. This blog will explain to you about fire safety and what the common fire hazards are, so you can avoid them and plan accordingly.

Hazards

All fires need heat, fuel and oxygen in order to start. Sources of ignition that you should be careful around are heaters, flames, cigarettes, or something that can spark. In terms of fuel, anything from paper and wood, to plastic and rubber can fuel a fire, and finally, oxygen is all around us in the air, at all times. This one is unavoidable.

What Should I Do

As the owner of a building, you should ensure fire safety risk assessments are carried out regularly, similar to health and safety ones. In fact, these can sometimes be carried out together. Depending on the results, it’s your responsibility to make sure precautions are in place to make the building fire safe. The assessment will make it clear to you specifically what types of ignition and fuel are present, so you can take control of the situation to reduce fire risks. In some circumstances, things can be completely avoided, but in some cases, this can’t happen and a plan will need to be in place to supervise them.

Examples of this include keeping fuel and ignition sources away from each other, keeping your premises clean and tidy, having the best fire safety equipment in the right places, and training your staff adequately. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that local authorities are in charge of enforcing these rules.

Explosions

Certain workplaces will have chemicals and substances that can burn easily and explode, causing fires. Unfortunately, many people are unnecessarily injured by these types of flammable substances. Examples of these substances include petrol, grease and even flour.

In order to reduce the hazard, you need to know exactly what substances can do this on your premises, and who could be harmed. From there, you can make a plan and put measures into place to prevent accidents from happening. In fact, The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR) states that employers must consider the fire risk when work is being done with flammable substances, in order to be as fire safe as possible.

How we can help

Here at Fire Stoppers, our engineers can carry out fire risk assessments on your premises. In fact, James Soley is a BAFE third-party accredited fire risk assessor and is also on tier 3 of the IFSM National Fire Risk Assessor Register so you know you are in safe hands. To learn more, or to enquire about our high-quality assessments, click here.

If you’ve liked this article and would like to read other posts like this, click here to visit our blog.