Each year the fire service attend countless numbers of fires in commercial premises. It causes huge amounts of disruption to businesses and costs insurers and the public millions of pounds in fees.

To ensure that your business doesn’t become a fire statistic there are a few things you can do to help with the identifying of fire hazards.

Electrical Appliances

One of the most common causes of fire is faulty electrical appliances. Nine out of ten electrical fires is caused by electrical products. Below is a few examples of what to watch out for:

  • Electrical adapters are not overloaded with too many appliances plugged in, especially appliances with a high electrical current rating.
  • Look out for any damaged plug tops or loose cabling.
  • Electrical heaters near curtains or other furniture.
  • Replace any faulty appliances.
  • Ensure that there is no trailing leads below carpets or rugs.

This list is not exhaustive and should be seen as merely a guide.

The best way to ensure that your appliances are operating as they should be is by having a PAT Test carried out.

Waste Material Stored on Site

Waste material being left and not regularly removed provides the perfect source for fuel of any potential fires. You can do your bit within the premises by doing the following:

  • Have a designated area for where the waste should be kept.
  • Regularly have the waste collected.
  • Ensure that all fire escapes are not blocked by waste i.e. cardboard etc.
  • Have the correct fire extinguisher installed where the waste material is stored.

This list is not exhaustive and should be seen as merely a guide.

Fire Doors Left Opened

The fire door has a purpose along with all the other fire safety equipment within your premises. Its purpose is to prevent the spread of the fire further into the premises. Below is a few tips for what you can do:

  • Ensure all fire doors are kept closed.
  • Nothing has been placed in front of any fire doors.
  • All fire doors open and close as they should.
  • No gaps around the doors.

It is really important that your regularly have your fire doors checked and ensure they operate correctly and are fitted properly.

Fire Safety Equipment Unchecked

Having fire safety equipment in your premises is great, however if you don’t have them regularly checked there is always a chance that the equipment won’t operate as it was intended. You can do a few things to check if your equipment has been checked recently:

  • Check any maintenance labels to see when the last service date was.
  • Check your fire alarm log book.
  • Check your emergency lighting log book.
  • Check any certificates that you have received and ensure they are within their recommended maintenance schedule.

SCT can help ensure that all your fire safety equipment is checked and maintained with a maintenance schedule and contract in place to take care of everything fire related.

Human Error

This one is pretty self explanatory to the sense that we are all human beings and we can all make mistakes and errors in judgement. No one is perfect. However what you can do is provide your staff with fire safety training and the use of portable fire extinguishers.

SCT can provide in-house fire safety and portable fire extinguisher training ensuring your staff have been given the basis to be able to help identify fire hazards.