Top Fire Safety tips to follow, keeping your workplace safe.

Time and time again many of the same issues crop up on a daily basis whilst out completing Fire Risk Assessments for businesses across the UK. We thought it would be a good idea to collate these into 5 key areas, helping you stay on top of your fire safety practice on a weekly basis.

Table of Contents Fire Safety Tips

1) Onboarding – Fire Procedure Taught to All New Staff

A very quick and easy procedure to implement is making sure that fire procedure is taught to all new staff during the onboarding process. This way all current staff are up to speed and on the same page on one of your companies most important, but often forgotten, procedures.

2) Evacuation Routes – Weekly Checks

Another good habit to get into is checking that your evacuation routes are being kept clear.

This can be simple changes like a build up of new stock blocking an entrance way or doors/gates that have been locked which lead to evacuation points.

Emergency doors must not be so locked or fastened that they cannot be easily and immediately opened by any person who may require to use them in an emergency.
Article 14, The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005

3) Little & Often – Stock Management

When buying flammable cleaning products and chemicals, or combustible items such as toilet rolls or sanitary products, a key tip is to buy Little and Often.

Cleaner’s cupboards or other storage areas can pose huge fire risks. Storing bulk amounts of flammable chemicals and combustible items such as toilet roll in one place can accelerate the spread of a fire and the damage to your property.

Especially if other hazards, such as fuse boards and consumer units are also located in there.

This is a problem I see all the time during my assessments. It’s important to raise awareness so action can be taken to keep people and property safe.
Tom Lewis – Head of Fire Risk Assessments

4) Documents – Centrally Managed with Backup

Making sure to keep records of all of your fire safety system certificates and servicing schedule centrally is essential. We always recommend saving these in a cloud based shared drive such as Google Drive. This allows multiple people to access them at any time and in the event of an incident, they are not going to be damaged/lost in the fire.
Bonus Tip – You can also use a digital Fire Safety Log Book template for your weekly checks.

5) Cooperation – Landlord or Tennant

Upon signing a lease on a new premises it should be agreed which party is responsible for each area of the properties fire safety. This will allow any issues that get picked up on your weekly checks or annual Fire Risk Assessment quickly and without delay.

We hope you have found these tips useful and this has given you some real world practical steps that you can work into your day to day activities.

Fire Safety in the workplace is never just fit and forget. It needs to adapt alongside your business, as you grow. Changing where necessary as new staff, equipment and internal procecedures are added.

Feeling unsure about any fire safety issue and want to discuss it further? Then please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact form below.

UKFC provide 100s of business with their annual Fire Risk Assessments across any sector, anywhere in the UK. Our detailed friendly reports include detailed action points to address issues quickly and efficiently.