Importance of Fire Safety in Your Home

The temperatures are at an all-time low yet again. Your house feels unpleasantly cold, not to mention uninhabitable. So to keep it warmer and liveable again, you turn on your stove and the heat gets cracked up. Many people are oblivious to the dangers they expose themselves and their homes to when the fireplace, heater and stove are on full blast. To be safe, it’s important that you maintain fire safety. You cannot overstate the importance of fire protection in a home.

To protect you (your loved ones) and your home from fire, you need to employ the use of tools and devices that will keep you safe in case of a fire. These tools and devices help keep everything and everyone protected at all times from any fire incidents particularly at that time of the year when the temperatures start to drop drastically. Here are the crucial things you need for fire protection in your home [and even business place].

#1: Smoke detectors – There is no finer way of protecting your home or business entity from fast flaming fires than having a smoke alarm installed. See that “little smoke” that is often given off by a fast flaming fire, smoke alarms can quickly detect the smoke particles inside them and in turn sound the alarm. Every room that someone sleeps in should have at least one of these devices installed. Ensure the smoke detectors are placed on the ceiling or just below the ceiling.

#2: Carbon monoxide alarms – For better fire protection, you should as well consider having a carbon monoxide alarm installed in your home or business place. It’s impossible to detect gas leakage on your own, and that’s quite frightening. That’s why you should have at least one carbon monoxide detector installed in your home. It is essential since gas leakages often lead to fires, and when that happens, the results are never too good to write home about.

The best area in your home to have the detector is near a room with a stove or fireplace (that should be in the kitchen or living room). Even areas in your home with a water heater are a better place to have one installed. Put simply, you should have a carbon monoxide detector near appliances/areas that might/could emit the dangerous fumes.

#3: Fire extinguishers – No home should miss having a fire extinguisher. They are well-suited for small, localised fires like those that occur on stovetops or in trash cans. While fire extinguishers are handy and necessary in every home, they are not for meant for fast flaming fires. A fire that’s spreading quickly requires some extra help.

You don’t need to have many extinguishers in your home, only one in every room where a fire may occur is enough. For better fire protection, it’s necessary to have these tools and devices in your home or business place.

How to Test Emergency Lighting and Exit Signs

What is emergency lighting?

Emergency lights are simple lighting devices that contain a small battery, which are connected to the buildings electrical supply. The electrical supply provides a constant charge to the battery, allowing back-up power to be stored, should a power outage occur. In the event of an outage, the emergency lights are triggered to supply enough light for occupants to vacate the building. Most emergency lights have an internal battery life of the required minimum of thirty minutes, but some last much longer. This is particularly useful for large buildings.

Exit signs work similarly to emergency lighting, but stay on all the time. Because of this, they usually operate on two bulbs; one operating from the buildings power supply and one that operates from the internal battery. It is important to check exit signs even if they seem to be working properly, as the emergency bulb may have burnt out or the internal battery may fail.

How often should I test my lighting?

This depends entirely on what type of system your emergency lighting is running on, but the fire code requires at least one test each month of 30 seconds, and an annual test of 30 minutes.

Daily

If your emergency lighting runs on a central back-up system, daily checks are recommended. This means all your lights are powered by a singular back-up battery or generator. These checks shouldn't be too time-consuming, but a quick check of the visual indicators displayed on your central power supply will ensure there are no issues in the instance of an emergency. You do not need to inspect the lights themselves, as this can be done as part of the monthly inspections.

Monthly

For all emergency lighting systems (including central back-up) a monthly inspection is required. This inspection must be long enough to ensure that all lights are working for at least 30 seconds. The reason for this being that faulty lights may still have enough life in them to operate for a few seconds, only to cut out soon afterwards. 30 seconds is the minimum required testing time, so if it takes you longer to walk around the building and check all lights are present, clean and functioning properly that's fine.

Annually

An annual check testing the emergency lights' full battery life is required. In most models this is 30 minutes, but the test should be extended if your lights are expected to last longer. As with the monthly checks, each light should be inspected individually to ensure there are no faults. They should be left to run for the amount of time the battery is expected to. This inspection should be should be carried out at a time of the year that is considered low-risk, such as before the Christmas break, as the batteries will then need time to fully recharge.

How do I actually test my lights?

There are two methods for testing your emergency lights system: manually and automatically. Manually requires a forced power outage to the lights, followed by inspection. This can be done by switching off the main circuit breaker supplying power to the lights. Then checking them individually, or by using the “test” button somewhere on each light's casing. Not all models include a test button, but these can be ideal for the monthly checks of 30 seconds, especially if you only have a small number of lights. For larger numbers, and for the longer annual inspections, switching the main power off is recommended. If you have trouble locating the switches/buttons, contact your electrician, or supplier of the lighting system.

Alternatively, some systems have automatic testing built in. These will conform to the standards required by the fire code. They will also save you time having to turn off the power supply or press the buttons manually. The lights should still be inspected manually though.

Regardless of the method of testing, written records documenting the inspections must be maintained, and any faults should be repaired immediately.

Why is Fire Risk Assessment Important?

In all buildings there is a need to protect things and ensure that people are not at risk of unnecessary dangers which may occur and prevent them from being safe in the building. Perhaps one of the most dangerous things that could happen to people is them being at risk of a fire, which possibly explains one of the main reasons for carrying out an appropriate fire risk assessment.

The last thing that anyone wants is for people to be injured by a fire which explains why some people are quite scared of fires and with good reason. When carrying out a fire risk assessment, one should be particularly vigilant as they do not want to risk a person's life by not being thorough and doing a good job. Furthermore, something else which may be pertinent to bare in mind is that ideally more than one person should conduct a fire risk assessment so that people are kept happy and safe and not going to be at risk from being damaged by a fire. Furthermore, people do not want to be left at risk by one person's silly negligence.

Another reason for carrying out a suitable fire risk assessment is that people need to be protected and so does their property, in an office there are many things which are quite important in value and do not need to be damaged. Further to this, it can be very expensive to replace these items if they are damaged in a fire. Essentially, a fire risk assessment can actually prevent these from being damaged in the long term and help to secure the long-term financial future of a company or firm if they are not always having to shell out for replacements for the kit. This is yet another benefit of a fire risk assessment.

Employees may be become ill at ease if they feel that they are at danger when they are in the building where they work. Like it or not, this can affect their productivity and not make them very happy and secure in the workplace. This is the last thing that a company needs as it can damage profits and future scope for progression. Employees can be really damaged and ill at ease if they feel that their needs are not being taken care of. Further to this, they can become quite angry at their superiors and leave the company in extreme cases if they feel that their welfare is not being looked after. This is not a good prospect as an employer wants to keep hold of all their workforce and actually enable them to thrive in the workplace, not by feeling so stymied. Furthermore, a fire risk assessment can help to do this in part. The employees will feel like their needs and safety are being taken into account and will feel a lot happier as a result of this and are less likely to exit the profession or file a complaint against the company, which really conveys the importance of a fire risk assessment.