Over 70% of businesses whom suffer from a fire will never recover from the impact of it, being forced to close within two years of the fire occurring. As well as this, there are other obvious dangers of fire, such as injury and fatality, so it's clear to see why having a 'fire warden' or a trained personnel is so important.
Think about everything on your business premises you could lose if a fire was to take hold. Your whole business could go up in smoke, literally. Whether you trade products or services, there is still a cost to items within your business and a fire is likely to prevent you from trading. Even if you have insurance, you could still be affected. We aren't saying that you can stop a fire from ever occurring, but you can take measures to try and prevent it.
If you are a product selling business, then the effect a fire can have on your business is obvious. If you sell services then you may not understand how badly you could be affected. Think about the data you hold for your customers – where is that stored? You should also consider all the files you have on your computers, if these were to be ruined could you recover the data? There are so many factors which can be affected when a fire takes hold which is why you need to take fire prevention seriously.
Fire safety training courses are very popular, most businesses of a certain size will have at least one fire warden whose responsibility is to evacuate the premises safely and do all they can to prevent a fire from occurring. One of the most popular courses in the NEBOSH Fire Safety which was introduced in 2005. The introduction of this was to minimise the risk of fire and educate people into understanding what they need to do and their responsibilities.
The Fire Warden or Fire Officer is then responsible for passing all training onto employees at the business. In fact, legislation states that all employees have to be trained in fire safety. Any visitors to your premises must be informed of the fire evacuation procedure when entering your premises. Failure to do this is against the law.
Fires can ruin businesses and lives, so it's important to make sure your business is prepared. Have any of your employees undertaken a fire safety course? Which course have they undertaken? Let us know through our social media channels.