It’s important to take your responsibilities seriously to ensure people’s lives are not at risk. It’s the law and you could face prosecution if you don’t meet your legal obligations.
Common fire risks in office environments
- Not planning appropriate escape routes
- Electrical faults
- Electrical equipment is placed too close to flammable materials
- Wedging fire doors open
- Smoking material being disposed of incorrectly
How to reduce fire risks in office environments
- Complete your fire risk assessment and make an emergency plan
- Ensure you have fire doors and maintain them regularly, make sure they are never wedged open
- Ensure electrical items and systems are tested and maintained
- Do not overload sockets and educate staff about the risks of doing so
- Ensure that counterfeit electrical items are not used, such as phone chargers
- Install and maintain fire detection and suppression systems such as sprinklers
- Fire safety training and fire drills must be carried out regularly
- Consider people with disabilities and how they will escape during a fire
- Have a smoking policy and enforce it
- Install and maintain appropriate fire detection and suppression system
- Don’t forget your neighbours
- Don’t be afraid to ask for expert advice on fire safety topics
Fire doors
Fire doors stop the spread of heat and smoke in the event of a fire. Without them, people in the building may not be able to evacuate when necessary due to smoke logging and high temperatures in escape routes.
You must
- Check that fire doors are not being wedged open.
- Regularly check door closing devices haven’t been tampered with or become defective.
Emergency plans
An effective emergency plan will help your people know what to do if there is a fire. Do you know how you would safely and quickly evacuate every person in your premises?
It is your responsibility to keep people safe if there is a fire.
You are required by law to make a fire emergency plan, so your people can keep themselves and residents safe in the event of a fire.
Find out more about Emergency Planning for Businesses
Emergency planning risks
One of the most common issues in licensed premises is poor escape planning, this is includes knowing how your customers will escape, how others in the building will escape and fire safety risks. It’s important to consider:
- Staff training
- Lack of practice of fire drills
- Inadequate staffing in an emergency
- Difficult escape routes
- Escape routes for neighbours