Fire prevention: how do you ensure a fireproof working environment?
As an employer, you regularly have an organisational fire to put out. But what if a real fire breaks out? Are you well prepared? A good risk analysis, the necessary preventive measures, and sufficient attention to firefighting are indispensable in every workplace.
Risk mitigation: will you pass the acid test?
Fireproofing your business involves a lot of things. Reducing fire risk in the workplace starts with a thorough risk analysis. That provides an overview of the conditions that can cause fire and identifies the possible consequences. The analysis addresses these questions, among others:
- How big is the company?
- What activities take place on these premises?
- How many employees are there every day?
- How likely is a fire to start?
- …
The answers to these questions determine which specific prevention measures are needed.
General safety measures are also essential. For example, emergency exits and fire extinguishers should be clearly present and marked. A smoking ban and general order and cleanliness will help you avoid risky situations.
Also ensure that every employee is aware of the emergency procedure and organise regular fire drills to check that everything is running smoothly.
Establish an in-house firefighting service
Every company must also have an in-house firefighting service. Ideally, it is made up of various employees from across the organisation. This way, there is always an employee nearby who can take on a coordinating role in the event of a fire.
Key tasks of the firefighting service are:
- Avoid a potential fire by identifying risk situations.
- Facilitate evacuation by alerting everyone in case of fire, escorting employees to a safe place, and assisting public emergency services.
- Extinguish or control an incipient fire.
Invest in training
You will optimally prepare members of the firefighting service for their duties through targeted training, which includes both a theoretical and practical component. Make sure that everyone in the organisation also knows who the members are, so that they can address them immediately in case of an exercise or emergency. With a training course on the use of fire extinguishers, you also provide your employees with sufficient knowledge.
Discover all our fire safety training courses or see which additional safety training courses you can take.
The prevention adviser and public emergency services, among others, get a clear, overall picture of the prevention policy in the company from the fire prevention file."Hans Cornelissen prevention adviser at Mensura
Bundle all the info in a fire prevention file
Your organisation’s fire prevention file bundles all the measures into a well-organised whole:
- Results of risk analysis
- Organisation of firefighting service
- Internal emergency plan with procedures
- Evacuation plan
- Intervention plan
- Observations following evacuation exercises
- Protective equipment against fire
- Inspections, checks and maintenance
- Deviations
- Recommendations
- Information to emergency services
The prevention adviser and public emergency services, among others, get a clear, overall picture of the prevention policy in the company from the fire prevention file.
But you should also keep updating the file based on new inspections, regular evacuation drills, and identified fire risks or situations that impede rapid and safe evacuation and intervention. Only by staying alert for possible improvements will you optimally increase your organisation’s fire safety. Therefore, include in the Global Prevention Plan the measures you plan to take in the future and the evidence showing why your prevention policy is sufficient to reduce the fire risk in the workplace.
How Mensura can help you
You will find useful documents to help you compile your fire prevention file in your MyMensura customer area.
Prefer professional guidance too? Our safety prevention advisers will help you draw up a fire prevention file or fire risk analysis. Get in touch using the form below.