5 Biggest Fire Safety Risks

Why should we be concerned about fire hazards? This is a question commonly asked by offices and homeowners. To answer this question, fires are a primary safety risk for any home or business. Even a small fire can turn fatal, especially if you are not adequately prepared. The first step to being adequately prepared to combat fire is identifying your existing fire safety risks. Here is a risk of some of the most common fire safety risks;

Poor Maintenance of Safety Equipment

Poor maintenance of fire safety equipment is one of the most common fire risks. If you purchased and installed but forgot to service your fire equipment, you put everyone at risk. Thus, you need to test all fire equipment regularly and address any repair issues. Maintaining equipment ensures you can depend on the equipment during emergencies and it reduces liability by ensuring that you comply with the local, state, and national fire regulations and codes.

Lack of Proper Fire Safety Training

One of the main components of a great fire response plan is training. Besides, having the most sophisticated fire systems will be useless if the occupants do not know how to locate and utilize them safely and effectively or respond to the fire. Fire response training is crucial for businesses to meet the Occupational Safety and Hazards Administration’s (OSHA) regulations. But for homeowners, this training is simply to protect your loved ones from the eventualities of fire emergencies. 

Lack of an Emergency Plan

Having an emergency plan is a crucial step in reducing fire risks. A fire policy that provides all the vital information on how to respond in the case of a fire is essential. For example, you should inform everyone on the exits to be used, the assembly point, equipment to be used, making emergency calls, who is in charge, etc. This information can be lifesaving; thus, everyone needs to possess it.

Fire Sprinkler Blockage

If anything is blocking the sprinkler or its head, the equipment may not work effectively. Therefore, even if you go for years without needing to use the fire sprinkler, you must always check if the system is faulty. Moreover, neglecting sprinkler service can lead to the loss of your fire equipment and valuable property. The sprinkler systems also have special codes and standards; neglecting them will put you at risk and result in legal implications. Therefore, you should always check to ensure that the fire sprinklers are not blocked.

Lack of Fire Equipment

The lack of proper fire equipment is as disastrous as not having fire safety training or having poorly maintained equipment. Thus, you will need to get smoke alarms to notify occupants immediately a fire breaks out. Also, you should install that fire extinguisher in different rooms. And, you should ensure that you have safety gear to protect you from fire if it breaks out.

The above points will help you understand where potential fire hazards may lie. They will help you take precautionary measures to promptly address any fire accident to minimize damage and loss.