When you’re planning your safety checks around your business premises, one of the most pressing concerns should be the fire safety checks. With the amount of electrical equipment needed to simply run a small business nowadays, the chances of fire increase with every new employee and every electrical wire. So the need to ensure safety checks are completed thoroughly and on time is heightened. There are a number of awareness days dedicated to fire safety, and this September it’s the turn of Fire Door Safety Week.
What is Fire Door Safety Week?
Fire Door Safety Week occurs every year and is an awareness week started by the British woodworking society.
For one week each year, the campaign aims to raise awareness of fire safety and the benefits of having a correctly working fire door. Alongside other members of the industry, including manufacturers, the campaign is championed by the Fire Door Alliance. But what is Fire Door Safety Week for?
Fire doors are an important element of risk prevention and fire fighting. A fire door in the right conditions can contain a fire for long enough to allow people to get away from the blaze and out to safety. It’s this reason that raising awareness about that quality of fire doors is important.
Fire Safety in Numbers
It’s sometimes difficult to understand just how important a good safety plan is. But the fire statistics in the U.K make for interesting reading. Here are just a few points that stand out:
- There were a total of 147,295 domestic and non-domestic fires in 2020.
- According to the home office, over 10,000 fires were cause by misuse of electronic appliances – over double the amount compared to the second highest factor, faulty appliances.
- 32% of people state they wouldn’t report a problem with a fire door
- 44% of people wouldn’t take proper action if they saw a fire door propped open
- In 2021, there were 14,000 injuries related to fires
Methods to Ensure Good Fire Safety
- Here are some methods to ensure good fire safety practices:
- Ensure you have enough fire marshals within your workplace – remember that members of staff will go on holiday, and you will need at least one marshal on site at all times.
- Help employees understand what fire doors do. Some people are unaware of what these doors do and how, when used properly, they can help avoid larger fires breaking out.
- PAT test your electrical equipment regularly. As you can see from the previous stats, faulty appliances are a big part of the problem.
- Work with employees to ensure they report potential fire hazards. Reducing risk is the best way to reducing the chances of a fire, so making everyone aware of their responsibilities can seriously improve your workplace’s chances of being a fire-free zone.
Fire doors are a big part of fire safety. Having them checked and your workplace risk assessed can help you if you simply don’t have the time to do this yourself. Affordable and easily organised, a simple yearly risk assessment can help you avoid a potential fire disaster. Direct365 are small business experts, and our safety and compliance services have peace of mind at the forefront.
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