Fire Safety in Your Facility

Virtually every facility has at least the basic fire safety systems in place. In most cases, they are required by law in order to operate. This will typically consist of a sprinkler system, fire and smoke detecting devices and fire extinguishers placed throughout the facility. While these are all extremely important, they don’t go far enough. Facilities need to improve the way they react to fires, as well as implement procedures that will help to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

If your facility only has the minimum required fire suppression systems in place, you are exposing yourself to considerable risk. Even a small fire can cause extensive damage, and require significant down time to repair. Sprinkler systems may put the fire out quickly, but that water may cause a lot of damage to the machinery, and the smoke can be troublesome too. For true fire safety in your facility, you need to look at how to prevent fires, how to react to them when they do occur, and also how you can improve any fire suppression systems you have in place already.

The following quote from “Warehouse Fire Safety” really sums this up well:

Fire codes are designed to achieve a minimum level of safety; even though the level of detail in the codes is extensive they can’t possibly cover every hazard or combinations of hazards. To use traffic laws as an analogy, just because you are obeying traffic laws does not mean that you will not get into an accident. The same is true of fire codes; they are designed to reduce the opportunities for fires to start, reduce the opportunities for fires to spread, provide for evacuation of occupants, and provide access for fire fighters to extinguish the fire.

Warehouse Fire Safety by Dave Piasecki

Fire Prevention

The best way a facility can improve their fire safety situation is to focus heavily on how to prevent fires. Fires can be caused by many different things in a facility, which is why it is important for the fire or safety manager in the facility to take a holistic look at where the biggest risks are in the facility, and take action to minimize those risks. The following are some of the key areas that should be thought of when it comes to fire prevention:

This is, of course, just a small list of different things to consider for fire safety and fire prevention. Each facility will have a wide range of different risks that should be identified and minimized. While the safety manager will have the primary responsibility of identifying these risks, they also need to work with all the other employees who work in the facility to ensure they know how to minimize the risk of fire.

Fire safety training is absolutely essential in any warehouse, or other facility. This doesn’t just mean having the occasional fire drill either. True fire safety training will help employees to learn to identify where a potential risk of a fire is, how to see the earliest indicators that a fire is starting and, of course, how to respond to these situations. Fire safety training doesn’t have to take very much time, but if it helps to prevent even one fire, it will be well worth any time and energy it took to create the program and give it to the employees.

Responding to a Fire

While fire prevention is the best option, it is not always going to be effective. No matter how much focus on fire safety a facility has, there is always the risk that a fire could occur. When this happens, it is essential to have good policies on how everyone will respond to a fire, as well as having good fire suppression systems in place. This will help to minimize the damage that is caused, and also keep employees as safe as possible.

The first thing to do is make sure employees know how to keep themselves safe during a fire. The most common thing to do is evacuate, and that should be the first thing employees learn when they begin working for a facility. They should know where all the exits are, and how to get to them. While this may seem obvious, far too many facilities neglect this type of training, which puts everyone at great risk.

Fire Suppression

Employees should also know where fire suppression tools such as fire extinguishers are, and how to use them. While it is not always appropriate to have employees attempt to put out a fire, it is a good idea to ensure they know how to locate and use these types of things. In some cases, it may be the only way they are able to escape safely.

Finally, the facilities fire suppression system should be looked at closely to see if it is the right option for the situation. Many facilities have a simple sprinkler system that will spray out water when activated. Depending on the type of facility that you are running, this might cause a lot of damage to the machinery and inventory. Facilities should consider using advanced suppression systems that are tailor made for their facility. Some options that may be useful for your facility include:

Fire safety is essential for every type of facility, and it needs to be taken very seriously. Take some time to evaluate your facility and see what types of improvements need to be made in order to ensure the safety or your employees as well as your facility.

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Additional Resources

• Fire Prevention in the Workplace [OSHA 1910.39]
• Fire Safety in the Workplace
• NFPA 25: Standards for Fire Protection Systems
• Floor Marking for Fire Extinguishers
• Floor Marking for Facility Safety