Fire at your business can be a calamitous blow to your entire company. A serious fire could lead to the loss of your important business items like raw materials, and essential business records including computer files. To make matters worse, a fire could cause serious injuries that could easily lead to the death of an employee or customer.
Even small fires can lead to enough damage to interfere with your business operations. In order to guard your business items against fire, it is important to consider the advantages of fire safety, prevention, and suppression. In this article, we will discuss a few factors to consider in order to have your business items safe against fire damage. Read on!
Install Fire Alarms
In case there is a fire breakout, a well-installed and functioning fire alarm system can quickly alert your employees and the authorities. By giving an early notification, a fire alarm can reduce injuries and damage to business items. A fire alarm system operates using the same mechanism as a sensor detecting smoke, heat, or any abnormal rise in carbon monoxide levels, which then generates the alarm and sends a warning.
Most of the fire alarm systems are wireless and the heat or smoke detectors pass the signals to a control panel wirelessly via radiofrequency. There are specific sensors that sense any rise of carbon monoxide levels using several mechanisms. Some sensors even make use of biomimetic cells! Smoke detectors, others also use photoelectricity to detect the presence of smoke.
The moment the control panel gets the signal, it activates the alarms. Fire alarm systems may also consolidate fire alarm monitoring equipment which signals the monitoring centers and the fire department in the event of an alarm trigger. This will help to identify where the fire is coming from and extinguish it before it causes more damage.
Install Fire Resistant Electrical Enclosures
We all know how bad it can turn when fire mixes with electrical cables, which is why you need a fire-resistant electrical enclosure to protect them from fire. Look out for MV electrical enclosures that can be used for both industrial and commercial applications. These enclosures are composed of switching equipment, like switches, fuses, circuit breakers, and even transformers.
MV enclosure secures the supply of power in an electrical system and protects the whole electrical device in case of possible faults, overloads, or even fire breakout. These enclosures will protect important items like circuit breakers and transformers which might worsen fire in case there is a breakout.
Install Fire Extinguishers
Installation of a fire extinguisher should be in accordance with local, state, and national laws and regulations. Ensure all your fire extinguishers are well tagged and inspected to ensure they are functioning well just in case you or your employees need to use one.
It is essential to schedule training for your employees by a certified professional on how to operate a fire extinguisher. Your employees will then have knowledge on how to operate it and know a few precautions to take when using it.
Install Fire Sprinklers
In the case of a fire with a large spread, a fire extinguisher may not be able to put out the fire. This is where a fire sprinkler would come in handy as the next line of defense in an office fire system. The moment there is fire, a fire sprinkler will start to extinguish it until the authorities arrive at the scene. It’s important to follow all regulations in regards to not only installing sprinklers but also schedule a regular inspection and in case of any issues make arrangements to have them repaired on time.
For workplaces where a wet fire sprinkler system could be disastrous for example in a server room, a dry fire suppression system may come in handy. Above all, it is essential to train your employees on which systems are in place in your business premises and what action to take in case one should activate to reduce panic.
Minimize the Risk of Fire
Did you know you can minimize the risk of fire? It is very easy. Make sure your office space is always clean and reduce the clutter by eliminating extra materials that could fuel up a fire. These extra materials could include old newspapers, dirty rags, and other flammable materials.
Ask your employees not to light up candles or use space heaters. Employees could easily leave out space heaters without switching them off and this could turn out to be disastrous to your office. In case you allow your employees to use space heaters, have rules to make sure employees distance them away from anything that is flammable.
The Bottom Line
Fire is disastrous and when not extinguished on time, it might cause serious damages. The above-discussed ways will help your business items from damages caused by fire. In the process of extinguishing the fire make sure you are in proper attire for safety purposes. You can put on a face shield and a pair of gloves during the process to avoid burn injuries.
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