What are the effects of fire in the workplace?
Fire presents a significant risk to your business.
At risk from serious injury to your staff members, fire can also damage or destroy buildings, equipment, and/or stock. It's expensive to recover from any natural disaster, so your business should have a continuity plan in place.
How a fire affects a business
- Smoke inhalation
Smoke inhalation is extremely dangerous and can cause short and long term damage to a person’s lungs, throat and in some cases causes unconsciousness, all of which can have lasting effects and cause permanent damage.
- Injury or death
A fire in a business that results in injury or death will have huge consequences on the business owner or manager responsible for the safety of their employees and, or customers, the family of anyone who is injured or dies and the businesses ability to trade and their reputation.
- Fire insurance claims
If a fire breaks out in a business and the Fire Safety Legislation and recommendations have not been followed then this can and are likely to invalidate a businesses insurance.
- Cost
If an insurance claim is invalidated then the cost of the repairs to the property and claims can be huge and result in the business ceasing to trade.
- Property and stock damage
Fire does and can cause a huge amount of damage to property and stock and this can have a massive impact on a businesses ability to continue to operate, causing significant logistical difficulties as well as the cost of replacing stock that has been destroyed.
- Data
If your business stores data on-site which enables you to operate and fire breaks out and destroys it, this will have a serious impact on its ability to run.
- Business operation
A fire can have serious consequences on a businesses ability to continue to operate at all or operate efficiently.
- Brand reputation
It is said that 80% of a businesses value comes from the hard-to-assess and intangible customer awareness and loyalty and if it is damaged this can be hard to overcome and fix.
- Environmental damage
Fires can damage the properties around it, the grass, trees, outbuildings, fencing and so much more.
How to protect your business from fire damage
The fire safety strategy for any and every business has to start with a comprehensive fire risk assessment.
The law states that you must provide fire safety training for new staff when they start work and tell all employees about any new fire risks.
A comprehensive fire risk assessment will identify the type of fire alarm and smoke detectors you require and will also determine the most appropriate places to locate them.
By law, you must have appropriate equipment and train your staff on how to use them if necessary.
5. Carry out regular maintenance and testing of fire safety equipment
All ISE extinguisher engineers are BAFE 3rd party approved SP101, experienced, professional and friendly, and are not commission based.
What are three basic fire safety principles you should follow at work?
There are many steps you can take to ensure fire prevention in your workplace, and keep your staff safe. What follows are three important basic fire safety principles to follow:
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Fire hazards in the workplace: Ensure fire safety in the workplace by regularly inspecting your workspace for potential hazards. By emphasizing fire precautions and maintaining a clean, secure work environment, you're taking vital measures to safeguard your workplace.
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Know emergency procedures: To prevent fatalities or injuries, it is vital to initiate an evacuation plan. At all times, fire exits and evacuation routes must be cleared of any obstacles. Fire alarm systems/detectors can be necessary on each floor.
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Install fire detection systems, such as fire alarms: ISE Fire can equip your business premises in Northants with the right fire alarm for your company. Simply get in touch for a free business premises audit.
Create a disaster recovery plan
Does your business have a plan to ensure its survival after a tragic event like a fire? You can create a clear, easy-to-follow, plan that everyone in the office can understand; protecting yourself from the long-term damages of fire or natural-disaster damage in the process.
Some questions your plan should answer include:
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Who should your business contact first in the event of a fire?
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What will you do about lost data, equipment and time?
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Who has the authority to make decisions during a fire?
Involve your employees in the planning process. Business continuity plans can only be carried out when everyone in the workplace understands that you strongly care about job safety and health. Be sure to hold people accountable to make sure everyone is on the same page with the plan.
Get in touch
If there's a fire and you haven't met your legal duties to keep people safe, you could be fined and may even spend time in prison.
Our highly qualified and experienced fire extinguisher and risk assessment engineer team ensure fire and safety with fire protection services with addressable fire alarm systems, fire extinguisher servicing and fire safety equipment for your office premises. In addition, we offer competitively priced fire warden and fire safety training for your workplace.
Call us on 01933 677125/01908 698880
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