Staff Fire Safety In The Workplace
Fire training is a critical practice which must be taken by staff. The law states it is the employers’ responsibility to ensure staff undergo fire safety training, but it is also necessary to ensure the safety of themselves and those around them.
Keeping the place of work safe from fire is critical and employers must ensure all staff have fire safety training. This isn’t simply a matter of learning how to use fire extinguishers and practising evacuations,
although these are, of course, really important elements of any fire training, but it’s also important to include background information about fire and fire behaviour - a little bit of science. Increasing fire safety awareness will reduce the chance of a fire happening and increase the chances of survival if a fire does break out.
So, to help understand fire and fire behaviour a good fire training programme will include some basic science - the science of fire.
For example, fire relies on fuel, oxygen and heat, and putting it out involves removing one of these factors.This is why smothering a fire puts it out - it removes the oxygen. If this little bit of fire training information helps make it easier to understand why smothering a small fire with a wet tea-towel works, it should make it a more logical thing to try.
When a fire is doused with water the water takes out the heat and this puts the fire out. However, if the fire is an oil fire, water will sink to the bottom of the pan and become incredibly hot. The steam produced then forces the burning oil to burst upwards and outwards - making matters much worse - so NEVER try to put out this type of fire with water.
If the fire has enough fuel and heat it can spread throughout the workplace via conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is the movement of heat through a material, and metals are great conductors. So if a metal door handle is hot, there is heat on the other side of the door and it should on no account be opened! Convection is the movement of heat through air currents. Smoke rises until it hits an obstruction, such as the ceiling, so the air near the floor is cooler and clearer, meaning it makes sense to keep low in smoky conditions. Radiation is heat spreading from one object to another through an empty space. Smoke can spread very quickly through a building, usually ahead of a fire, so keeping fire doors closed also helps to stop smoke quickly spreading to escape routes.
Good fire training emphasises the importance of not tackling a fire unless it’s safe. A fire should only be tackled if one person can put it out with one fire extinguisher and if that person is confident that they are capable of doing so. Any time that person realises they can’t do it they must leave it and get out, safety comes first. An employee should never try to put a fire out with a fire extinguisher unless they know how to use it. Using the wrong type of fire extinguisher on a fire can actually do more harm than good, and the different types of extinguisher will be explained in any good fire training course.
An understanding of what to do if the worst does happen is also a vital element of good fire training: fire training must increase the chance of keeping staff safe. Knowing the best and safest route out, where the meeting point is, where the fire extinguishers are, how to raise the alarm, what the fire signs mean and how to evacuate safely must be included in a good fire training programme.
So before choosing fire training for staff, make sure it contains all the important fire safety information, is clear, easy to understand and engaging. Interactivity ensures participation and a careful mix of video, graphics, animations, diagrams and text keeps interest high. The fire training you choose has to make you feel staff will be safer, so your company will be safer too.
