Fire safety is a really big deal; it can literally be life or death. So this leads to the all-encompassing question: are you doing everything you can, at work and at home? Commercial and residential fire safety regulations differ in many ways, as the risk element between them is significantly different. But there are ways in which you can ensure that you’re doing everything you can to protect the people you are responsible for, including work colleagues and family members.

Annual fire inspections

For a home, you might think it’s silly to have a professional fire protection operative perform an audit on your home’s fire safety. But you won’t find it silly if you ever have a fire break out in your home. It is always better to be prepared than not, and by performing an inspection, you will have the peace of mind that you and your family are prepared in the case of a fire emergency.

In the commercial world, it’s expected that your building has regular fire inspections, especially after any form of renovation or increase in building population; but that does fall short in reality. The other side of this is the turnover of staff, which can impact the longevity and integrity of records. This is why it’s always recommended to have an annual inspection performed on your building. Time flies, and before you know it, it’s been over five years since your last fire inspection and 50% of your team has changed since. It’s also good to get recommendations for new fire-stopping technology and systems that you might be unaware of, as technology has evolved in nearly every industry, fire safety included.

Annual fire drills

Like the fire inspection, yearly fire drills sound a little extreme, but they should be done, at work and at home. At work, there is frequent turnover of staff members, and while the fire protocol may have been explained to them during their induction and orientation, it might not have stuck with them. This is why it is important for your team to do a fire drill at least annually; so that the starters from the past year can run through it, but it’s also a good refresher for those who have been there for years as well since these guidelines can be easily changed without any reaffirmation of those changes.

Similarly at home, with a growing family and an ever-changing home, your kids will have to remember what to do when a fire breaks out. Some kids are fantastic at remembering this forever, having only ever done one fire drill, but there is the reality that things may change in a household and those directions may not be the same forever, while memory can be unreliable, especially in children and young adults. This is why it’s a fantastic idea to do an annual fire drill to ensure that everyone has a refresher and while running through the drill you can correct any “holes” in the plan, without the panic of a real fire.

Fire extinguishers

Fire extinguishers are possibly the most important fire-stopping system you can have at work and at home. Extinguishing a fire, where possible, can save your building from unnecessary damage. Most domestic fires start in the kitchen, so having the right fire extinguisher for kitchen purposes can save an entire house. Of course, if a blaze is unruly, calmly but quickly evacuate to a safe place, usually a pre-determined muster point.

For commercial buildings, the start of a fire might be in a different location, and have a different cause, so it’s very important to have the right fire extinguishers in strategic places with ample team members who know how to use one. This can save your business a lot of money in the event of a fire, and prevent unnecessary damage to your building or office. Always ensure that fire extinguishers are in date and regularly serviced to prevent any mishaps should they need to be used in an emergency.

Use a robust fire protection software

Commercially, having the right information is key to any situation, which is why Onetrace is developed in line with current 3rd party accreditation standards alongside existing building safety guidance, including the Golden Thread of Information. This ensures that your company has access to the right information, right when they need it, and thanks to the complete transparency that is the Onetrace way, your clients can have access to that information right at their fingertips too. A robust fire protection software, such as Onetrace App, can and will completely revolutionise your entire workflow and massively improve the way you work and report information to supervisors and clients.

Ready to see it in action? All you need to do is simply get in touch or request a demo. If you’re not ready to commit, that’s okay - you can try Onetrace completely free for 7 days with zero obligation or commitment. No fuss, no hassle.