Every year, fires have a devastating impact on thousands of businesses around the world. Learn how to protect your business from fire by reading this expert guide.
Every business owner’s worst nightmare is their business office or premises catching fire. Fires can lead to extreme repair costs, damaged customer goods, downtime, and even (in the worst-case scenarios) injured employees. Obviously, you don’t want any of this to happen, which is why you need to know how to protect your business from fire.
You might run a small downtown office or even a huge retail store in a busy city — it really doesn’t matter when it comes to fire. What matters is that you have the proper safety measures and precautions in place so your business and its employees are as safe as possible.
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My Business Has Been Damaged by Fire — What Should I Do?
If you’ve recently fallen victim to a fire (e.g., an arsonist attack) and your business premises have been severely damaged, you’ll need to use fire damage restoration services. Whether the fire was small or large, the professionals will take care of the damage for you, from evaluating the property to removing soot and smoke residue. Pretty quickly, you and your team will be able to get back to work and start doing what you do best.
Moving into the future, make sure that you have building insurance in place so that your business is financially protected from any future fires that happen. The insurance company you use will then pay out the money for any damage caused to your building, giving you (the business owner) complete peace of mind.
Now, let’s move on and discuss the five proven ways to protect your business from fire.
Install Fire Protection Equipment
Firstly, you should install fire safety equipment throughout your business premises. For example, if you operate on five different building floors, each floor should have fire protection equipment.
In terms of the actual equipment itself, here’s what to include:
- Fire alarms
- Sprinklers
- Fire extinguishers
Let’s say that a small fire breaks out in the corner of your building. While it’s currently contained, you or one of your employees will be able to use the fire extinguisher (providing it’s safe to do so) to eliminate the fire. Or, in cases where the temperature goes above the set level, the fire sprinklers will go off and take care of the problem instead.
Be Careful with Electrical Items
Every member of your team should be very careful with electrical items. Don’t leave drinks unattended on desks. Always turn the equipment off when you’re finished with it, and so on.
It’s also an excellent idea to use floor cable covers. This way, any cables you have won’t be exposed and no employees will trip over them. Again, this is a great way to protect your business from fire, as electrical cords are a big problem when it comes to fires being started.
Get Regular Building Maintenance
It’s recommended that you get regular building maintenance from technicians. This way, any underlying problems (that can potentially lead to fires) will be discovered and handled by a professional. It’s a no-brainer.
Building maintenance is especially important if you currently operate in an old building. You can never be too careful with old buildings, as fire hazards can easily go unnoticed in the background.
Make Your Fire Exits Easy to Access
Whether you have ten or a hundred employees working for your business, fire exits need to be easy to access. The fire exit doors should also be very easy to open and not require any tugging or pulling, as this is something that people don’t have time for in the case of a serious fire.
Conduct Fire Drills
Every few months, you should conduct fire drills with your team. Fire drills will show each employee what they need to do in case of a fire. The purpose is that employees understand how to escape the danger of a fire in an efficient and orderly manner. After all, the last thing you want is for a fire to break out and or your employees to start running around in a state of panic without knowing where they need to go.
It’s also worth mentioning that many companies now offer online fire drill training courses. You can enroll your employees in these short courses to supplement their fire knowledge and provide them with extra peace of mind. Of course, this is optional, but it’s highly recommended — especially if you work in a big building.
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