The office is the one place which we spend most of our time when we aren’t at home, and because of this we tend to cook, make drinks, bring lots of layers in and many will smoke too. Anything which involves heat and flammable material is a fire hazard, and when you have 40 people in the office all using the microwave and making toast in the morning, the hazard can rise exponentially. Fire safety is incredibly important in any part of our lives, but is especially important when we are in the office due to the volume of people. If you need some tips on making the office as safe as possible, then read on…

Check your electrics

The first step to making sure that your office is safe is to check the electrics regularly. Ideally every appliance and computer in the building should be checked every 3 months or so to make sure that they are running correctly and are safe to use. Electrical fires are one of the number one causes of fire in the modern day, so checking that your electrics are in safe working order is essential.

Test your fire alarms

Always make the time to test your fire alarms regularly. Every office has a legal responsibility to put a fire detection system in place, but you need to make sure that you check it regularly enough with fire drills and make sure that the batteries haven’t run out. You should check the alarm once a month and make sure that everyone in the building can hear it.

Emergency escape routes

Any building needs to have some easy escape routes as well as maps to said routes all over the building. No one should have to run across the entire building in order to get out, there should be an exit within meters of everyone in the office building. If some of your workers are upstairs you will need a fire escape with ladders. Make sure you run regular fire drills to make sure that everyone is able to exit the building within a reasonable timeframe.

Appoint a fire warden

Every office should have someone who works as a dedicated fire warden. They will be the ones who will test the fire alarms, carry out fire drills, check the fire extinguishers and make sure everyone understands what to do in case of an emergency.

Safe smoke breaks

With the amount of workers who smoke, you will need to make sure that you have a designated space away from the building where people can go out and smoke in peace, as well as being safe for the rest of the employees. Make sure to provide bins for cigarettes and that all fire is put out before being in contact with potentially flammable material like paper.

Educate employees

One of the main causes of fire in the workplace is simply the fact that employees are not properly educated on how to be safe.  Make sure that you take the time to really educate your employees on safe conduct.