Fire

Fire Risk Assessment Information You Should Read

A very dangerous problem that most homeowners, as well as business owners, face is the probability that a fire could break out. There are many things that could go wrong including electrical problems, a heating system that leads to a fire, or simply accidental occurrences that can bring an entire home or complex to the ground. If you have a family at your home and you want to make sure that they are completely safe, or if you have a large facility where there is a significant amount of machinery or flammable material that could cause a major fire, there are certain things to look for every day leading to what is called the fire risk assessment. There are actually five steps to this process, and let’s begin with the first.

Identifying Fire Hazards

The first step of the process is to actually identify all of the potential fire hazards that exist in a particular area. For example, when extreme amounts of heat, the source of the ignition of the fire comes into contact with a type of fuel that could easily burn, and if there is plenty of oxygen, you are looking at the potential for fire. The key to making sure that fires do not occur is keeping the fuel apart from anything that could ignite it. Obviously, there is no way to remove the third component to creating a fire, oxygen, unless you are trying to put it out using a fire extinguisher, a fire hose, or various types of powder that can extinguish the flames. There are so many ways that a fire can get started which includes naked flames such as lighting a candle and leaving it burning inside of your home. Other problems include electrical lighting, electrical heaters, or any type of electrical equipment that could be left on. In fact, some of this equipment could simply be plugged into the wall, and a fire could begin through an accidental short in the system. Finally, if you are working in an environment where there is quite a bit of metal grinding, welding, or any place where there are matches used, these are most certainly fire hazards. Finally, you will want to identify what really could burn, especially quickly, which could be anything from furniture to rubbish like paper and packaging. As long as you are able to keep this material away from anything that can ignite it, you are ensuring that your workers and family will be safe.

Who Is At Risk?

The next thing to consider is who will be at risk at the location that you are doing your fire risk assessment. If you are doing this at your home, then obviously this with your children, significant other, or even family members that are coming over to visit. If this is at your place of employment, if you are in charge of a large factory, you will want to make sure that you do a fire risk assessment at every department level. This is especially true in industrial is this is where welding, burning, and electrical equipment is used regularly which could lead to a significant fire. Finally, if you happen to be in a facility where there are elderly people, this is of utmost importance when looking for potential fire risks. These individuals will not be able to move quickly, or they may not have the cognizance to recognize that there is a fire, and may become victims if an accident occurs.

Creating A Plan Of Action

Once you have identified all of the potential candidates for causing a fire, and you have also determined who will be at risk, you need to think about the steps that you will take to get these individuals out of the home or building, reducing the risk for everyone that may be involved. You also need to consider safer ways of managing material that you have in your home, or at your company, making sure that heat or sparks cannot fall into extremely flammable material. Once you have created this plan of action, this will ensure that both you, and everyone around you, will have the best possible chance of escape from within your home or at your place of employment.

Set Up Training

Developing a plan of action is absolutely useless unless people understand how to use it. This is why schools will have a fire drill when children are taught to go to certain locations in case a fire does happen. They do this repetitiously so that they will remember where to go, even if they are under the stress of dealing with a real situation. By creating your plan, and implementing formal training of some sort, you can better prepare people for what could happen in the future should a fire break out.

Always Repeat Risk Assessment Procedures

Risk assessment is not a one-time deal. It is actually something that should be done on a regular basis. If you are not able to reevaluate your home, the place where your workers are constantly doing their job, or any other location where fires can break out, you are doing a disservice to the people around you. If you are the breadwinner for your family, or the manager of a particular complex, you will need to do this as often as possible. There is nothing worse than realizing, after the fact, that you were not aware of certain hazards that actually lead up to a fire. By doing fire risk assessment regularly, you can improve the chances of the survival of the people that you love, and the workers that make it possible for your business to function, by assessing the possibility of fire risk as often as possible. It is also necessary to do routine drills where people understand where to go in case of a fire. It is the best way for you to keep yourself and everyone safe through proper fire assessment and practice drills that could save their lives.

Posted by / March 5, 2016 / Posted in Safety
Health and Safety

The Importance Of Health And Safety

Health and safety in the workplace is extremely important, as it is one of the human rights to be safe at work. Employers can’t put people in danger, so they need to make sure they have detailed safety guides and regulations. Moreover, they need to instruct their employees in order to minimize the risks. They also have to make all necessary arrangements for offering their employees effective protection. Managing health and safety isn’t easy, hence the need for health and safety consultants or specific work procedures and internal rules and regulations that need to be acknowledged and followed by all members of the team.

This type of information is workplace-specific. There are certain things to know when you work in a factory, and totally different ones when you spend your work time in an office building, stuck at your desk, with your eyes staring at the computer screen. There are rules to be followed in each of these situations, as everything can be potentially harmful if done the wrong way. For instance, if your job implies working on the computer for eight hours a day, you should know that you have to stand up every 20-30 minutes, take a few steps, stretch your legs and look out through the window. These actions would take you about 2-3 minutes, but they are going to buy you good years of health. They are effective for protecting your eyes, your muscles and your bones. However, you may not be aware of this, so your employer has to instruct you in this regard immediately after you get hired. Warehouses, stores and other similar premises are subject to a different set of health and safety rules. Construction sites need to follow another set of rules and regulations. All these are standardized by law, so that workers across all industries and areas of activity are safe.

If you are an employer, you have to be aware that your employees might sue you in case of a work accident, so you have to make sure you’ve instructed them properly. Besides, you are also responsible for providing them the safety and protection equipment “enforced by the law”. Moreover, you need to check that your employees use the safety equipment as instructed. This means you have to watch your teams closely, and warn them in case you notice anything that’s not right.

Health and safety awareness is so important that the government invests in promoting this type of information through national campaigns across all main media channels. In addition, they try to increase the awareness of all employers and business owners by providing free consultancy and advice over the phone. If employers know what they have to do, they can pass on this information to their employees, thus contributing to a safer society and better working conditions for all of us.

Workers and employers need to be on the same side of the barricade when it comes to safety issues. If you suspect your employer is exposing you to risks that could be avoided, you should raise this concern and even seek for a response in court, should your employer remain insensitive to your observations. There are third party institutes that can come and investigate all complaints regarding health, safety and working conditions. Such inspections result in fair resolutions and advice for controlling the risk and correcting all faulty procedures in the workplace.

It’s our right to be safe at work, so we shouldn’t allow the pressure of deadlines or the need of lowering the costs to transform us into victims. “The welfare and the working conditions should always come first”, even if they lead to a higher price of the end products.

Posted by / March 5, 2016 / Posted in Safety