Safety Spotlight – Fire Safety & Fire Wardens

For the month of September, we are putting in the spotlight two key areas relating to our Hazard of the Month, Fire.

Fire Safety

Swirling flames of a fire.Many people and organisations have quite a complacent attitude to fire safety. Not necessarily due to deliberate corner-cutting or attempts to save money, but because they believe fires to be an unusual occurrence. Unfortunately, official statistics tell a very different story.

Home Office figures show that in the 2016/17 reporting period, Fire and Rescue services in England attended 15,815 ‘primary fires’ in non-dwelling buildings – more than 300 a week. These incidents resulted in 17 fatalities and 892 non-fatal casualties.

The data also demonstrated that any type of building could suffer a blaze, with:

  • 2,112 at industrial sites
  • 1,725 in shops
  • 686 in education premises
  • 656 fires in hospitals

Fire safety is the responsibility of everyone. The risk of fire can be reduced with proper understanding of how to avoid fire hazards and the training required to act quickly in the event of a fire; helping protect both lives and property.

If you’re interested in providing your employees with the knowledge of how to prevent fires in the workplace, but also what to do in the worst-case scenario if one does break out, our RoSPA Accredited Fire Safety online Training is a valuable course to help workers grasp the foundations of how to be fire-safe in the workplace.

Learn more about the course HERE.

Fire Wardens

Red Fire Extinguisher Beside Hose Reel Inside a RoomThe Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, states that the employer or owner, as the ‘responsible’ person, has overall responsibility for fire safety in their premises. However, they may appoint ‘competent’ persons such as Fire Wardens to help ensure adequate fire safety procedures are used and adhered to.

Fire Wardens have the responsibility of checking fire precaution measures and ensuring that fire risk assessments are up to date. They must be trained to:

  • Understand the different types of fire in order to ensure the correct equipment is present.
  • Understand how fire spreads in order to minimise its impact in the case of discovering a fire.
  • Produce and understand a full Fire Risk Assessment.
  • Maintain fire equipment records to ensure everything will work correctly in the event of an emergency.
  • Assist in evacuations.
  • How to take charge during emergency situations.

In normal-risk premises the following applies to determine how many fire wardens are needed:

  • Fewer than 20 employees: at least one fire warden
  • 20-75 employees: at least two fire wardens
  • For every additional 75: one additional fire warden

Our RoSPA Accredited Fire Warden online training is a quick, easy and accessible way to provide Fire Wardens with the knowledge of their duties and what actions to follow in the event of the fire.

Learn more about the course HERE.

If these topics and their relevant courses are of interest, for this month only you can get a 10% DISCOUNT with the code ‘Fire20’! But be quick, as it will expire at the end of this month!