Losing lives in a fire within a commercial building is quite a common occurrence. At the root of it is panic and a lack of proper fire training, more easily known as ‘what to do during a fire. Fires in commercial buildings lead to huge commotions and often a complete blockage of exit routes, causing stampedes and deaths from suffocation. People are unaware of the fire exits in the building and lose valuable time finding them when trying to get out. Office owners know where to buy fire extinguisher in India, but they often ignore training their staff for fires. The usual excuse is that there hasn’t been a fire breakout for years, so why waste office hours doing a fire drill?

 

Well, let me tell you why you need to train your employees on fire safety; it’ll save both their lives as well as their colleagues. Right from preventing fires from establishing a standard operating procedure during a fire, everything is covered in a fire-training program. Your employees will learn about the elimination of fire hazards as well as the appropriate response to a fire. You need to understand that whenever a fire breaks out, not only your property is at risk but human lives as well. Employees unfamiliar with the building or the fire fighting equipment in the building are at greater risk.

Benefits of employee fire safety training program:

An effective fire training program will teach your employees the ways to identify fire hazards, assessing risks, prevention of fire at the workplace and also about the appropriate response. Let us dig further and try to learn about the specific benefits of a fire training program:

Identifying the fire hazards

The first phase of a fire training program involves identification of the fire hazards. It’s important to identify the different types of fire hazards like electrical wires, fuel sources and inflammable objects in the vicinity of a heat source. For instance, if you have a restaurant, then your employees should be informed about the cooking oil, electrical wires, ovens and any other inflammable materials in the building. The primary goal is to keep the heat source and inflammable objects at a safe distance from one another.

Risk assessment

During this phase, they will learn about the risks and ways to prevent fire by assessing the risks. Risk assessment includes the following:

1. Emergency exits
2. Fire alarms and other warning systems
3. Fire extinguishers
4. Storage or removal of hazardous equipment
5. Drawing up a plan for emergency evacuation during a fire
6. Identifying the most vulnerable employees
7. Communication among the employees and administration
8. Fire safety training

Prevention of fire at the workplace

Prevention of fire at the workplace is the most important part of fire training programs. Your employees will be informed of the different ways to prevent fires at the office, and they will also learn about dealing with various types of inflammable objects. They will also be trained on using various types of fire extinguishers.

Training your employees on fire safety will help them understand the risks presented by fire as well as the ways to prevent a fire from escalating and building into an inferno. In addition to this, your employees will also be aware of the evacuation procedures to be followed during a fire emergency and avoid unnecessary loss of lives and property. Your employees need to get proper fire safety training before you find out where to buy fire extinguishers in India.

• (This "Fire Safety Blogs" Published in  May 2024  Edition)