While creating a plan for your workplace fire drills, you need to establish the escape routes throughout the building.
Does your workplace have a fire drill procedure in place? If it doesn’t, then the beginning of a new year is a good time to design one. As a business owner, one of your highest priorities is keeping everyone in the building safe, especially when it comes to fire emergencies. You never know when the next one will happen, so you need to stay ready.
Create a Plan
While creating a plan for your workplace fire drills, you need to establish the escape routes throughout the building. However, you will need to get everyone in the building to participate in in the drills. If you have a team assembled for overseeing the drills, then you must be sure that they are trained in what to do and how to measure the performance of everyone involved. Fear of lower productivity could be one of the reasons why your workers may be unwilling to leave their stations.
Make the Plan Clear
Communication is key. Once your plan is in place, you need to make it as clear as possible. Use emails, text messages, the website, and employee portals to indicate the procedures and policies for how the fire drills in your workplace are supposed to work. Add the next scheduled fire drill to the company calendar so that everyone knows what day it will take place and what time. However, sometimes, unannounced fire drills can be just as effective as announced ones in testing your employees’ readiness to respond to fire emergencies.
Establish Goals
The next step of the process is to establish some goals for the fire drill. Consider setting a target time for how long evacuations should take, how long it takes to report that the drill has been completed, and if essential equipment was shut down and secured before the building was evacuated.
Practice
Practicing, or rehearsing the fire drills in your workplace is just as important as planning them out. By doing this, you can compare results from your first fire drill to the fifth, and look for any patterns and trends through the use of observers.
Arrange Observers
The observers that you choose should not already be on the fire team. They need to be impartial and look for people who are not taking the drill seriously. They will also need to find and assist anyone who has mobility issues or other physical disabilities. Lastly, the observers will need to be on the lookout for anyone who chooses an exit that is not the one designated for them to take when it is time to run a fire drill.
Fire Protection Services from Fireline
Whether you need smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, or an automatic sprinkler system installed at your commercial property, Fireline has you covered. We have been protecting people and properties from fire damage since 1947—and our experience shows in our excellent work! We are known for our wonderful customer service, our expertise, and our reliability. For more information on how we can help your residential or commercial property, visit us online or give us a call at (800) 553-3405. We are located in Baltimore, MD, with a second office in Leesburg, VA. For more fire safety tips, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.