4 Things a Fire Safety Plan Should Include

Every residential and commercial building should include a fire safety plan, which should be specific to the property or business. Conducting an audit or review of the factors that could affect fire safety can play an important part in creating a plan that will cause as little damage as possible, as well as ensuring that you can safely evacuate your employees. In this article, we take a look at 4 things a fire safety plan should include when it comes to your commercial building. 

Reporting the Emergency

It’s important to establish how you are going to report the emergency to your employees in the event of a fire. It’s not uncommon in large buildings for employees to not be able to hear a smoke alarm. And even if they do, they may be unsure whether it’s a false alarm and hesitate to evacuate. 

CollisionRepairmag.com gives us some options on how to notify your employees in the event of an emergency:

“The first and one of the most important parts of a safety plan is the procedure for notifying occupants and others of the emergency. In buildings without a fire alarm it is important to identify the best means for alerting people to the emergency (e.g. shouting “fire”, blowing an air horn or whistle, using a megaphone, hand bell, strobe light, intercom or other signaling device). If work takes place in a noisy environment, the plan should also identify a secondary method for alerting people.”

Emergency Procedures

A fire safety plan must include emergency procedures. Emergency procedures should not only include how you intend to safely evacuate your employees, but should include in detail every procedure you intend to follow to ensure that the fire is extinguished as soon as possible.

Muskoka Lakes Fire Rescue tells us what should be included in your fire safety plan when it comes to emergency procedures:

“The emergency procedures to be used in case of fire including sounding the fire alarm, notifying the fire department, provisions for access for fire fighting, instructing occupants on procedures to be followed when the fire alarm sounds, evacuating endangered occupants and confining, controlling and extinguishing the fire”.

Site Drawings

Site drawings are often stored in an easy to access fireproof box on a commercial property and in the case of high-rise residential properties. Site drawings are an invaluable addition to your fire safety plan, as they map out for firefighters exactly where such important items as fire fighter access points are located.

WorksiteSafety.ca explains what site drawings in a fire safety plan usually entail:

“The Fire Safety Plan includes drawings of the property showing locations of fire protection systems for use by the occupants and firefighters. Site drawings must include a number of items, such as Fire Fighter Access Points, Fire Exits, The Annunciator, Fire Hydrants, Standpipes, The FF Box, Gas Shutoffs, and Mechanical Rooms.”

Fire Drills

At a minimum, fire drills are required in the workplace every 12 months. However, workplaces with an increased amount of fire hazards may wish to consider practicing fire drills every 3 months. Fire drills are an important part of a fire safety plan, as they not only help your employees prepare for an emergency, but also help to make improvements to the existing plan should issues present themselves.

Fire-Alert takes pride in equipping homeowners, commercial businesses and government buildings with all necessary fire safety devices to ensure the well-being of families and employees across the nation. Reach out to us using our contact form to find out more.