At the time of writing there is a threat by the Fire Brigade Union to hold a strike over a dispute about pension rights. Now then, this article is not about the rights and wrongs of the dispute (each reader will have their own views about the pensions proposals by central government).
You may be wondering what you should do in the event of a fire during the strike period and basically, although there may be a delay in the response by the emergency services if you are unlucky enough to have an outbreak of fire you should still ring 999 yourself unless told otherwise by publicity from your local fire service.
One thing that you can do as a small business is something that you need to do on a regular basis anyway and carry out some basic checks of your fire prevention and procedures.
Preventative Checks
The preventative checks that you can carry out include :-
- Remember to remind staff that smoking is not allowed in the workplace – of course many businesses will have a designated smoking area that complies with the smoking at work act.
- Do not leave any electrical equipment on while you are not working – according to the UK Government this is the most common cause of accidental fires. A side benefit of this is, of course, that you are likely to be saving money by doing this.
- Make sure that everyone knows the fire procedures you have in place, for example :-
- Where is the meeting place for your staff in the event of a fire?
- Who is responsible for contacting the fire service?
- Do you have a list of visitors that are on the premises?
- Who will take these visitors to the meeting place?
- Who will check that everyone is safe using a checklist?
- When was your last fire drill?
- Who is responsible for shutting down any equipment?
Additional things that you might want to think about during the period of the strike are :-
- Prohibit the use of temporary heating equipment (radiators, fan heaters, gas heaters etc) unless you really need them, and then only after you have carried out a full risk assessment.
- Don’t allow any “hot work” such as cutting or welding unless it’s necessary and then only if strict safety procedures are followed.
Fire Protection Equipment and Facilities
As we have discussed in our earlier article about fire extinguishers you need to make sure that you have the correct types of extinguishers for the risks in your workplace.
As well as this you should make sure that you carry out regular checks of any sprinkler system you have installed, to do this you probably need to talk to professional testers as it’s not something that you can check yourself.
Although it’s too late for the current strike, are your staff trained in the use of fire extinguishers and know what to do in the event of a fire? Don’t forget that extinguishers are only meant to be used to get your staff out of the building safely and not to put fires out, that is the job of the emergency services.
Hopefully, you won’t need to call the fire services during the strike (or at any other time) but as the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry.