Workplace Fire Safety Tips: Your Guide To Protecting Lives + Assets

There are over 70,000 severe workplace fires annually in the U.S., and over 85% of the resulting damage—whether to property, business assets, or people—is due to human behavior. That means workplace fires are preventable with a proactive fire safety plan.

With proper planning and training, you can empower your employees to quickly make the right decisions to prevent and respond to fires at work. By reviewing your company’s fire safety plan with each employee, you’re helping to save lives, protect valuable business assets, and prevent fire from taking it all away.

While equipment such as fire sprinklers and emergency lights are standard for any public building, each business has unique requirements—not only for code compliance but for true safety. To ensure that your company’s property, business assets, and employees are completely protected with the necessary equipment, the first step in your workplace fire safety plan is to complete a fire hazard assessment.

What is a Fire Hazard Assessment?

A fire hazard assessment is an opportunity for fire protection professionals to walk through your facility and make specific recommendations about how you can better protect your business and your employees. Some fire protection companies will sell you the equipment you ask for. However, a genuinely effective fire protection strategy starts by looking for hazards. No recommendations should be provided until a professional has seen your building’s layout, occupancy, and special hazards.

STEP 1: DISCUSSION OF NEEDS AND CHALLENGES

The assessor first talks to the building owner, business owner, facility manager, or other decision-makers about the needs, concerns, and challenges relating to fire protection—does your company deal with any hazardous materials? Do you have any process control rooms, electrical control cabinets, IT/server rooms, or other special hazards that need a particular focus?

STEP 2: FACILITY WALKTHROUGH

After talking through your business’s specific needs, the assessor completes a walkthrough of the facility to identify areas that are not up to code, inadequately protected areas, and any additional fire risks. 

STEP 3: RECOMMENDATIONS

Your business is presented with complete recommendations for upgrading or supplementing its fire protection equipment based on the assessor’s findings from the walkthrough. The proposals take into account current best practices and the specific needs of your building and business.

While fire protection equipment is critical to the safety of any building, fire causes the most damage as a result of human behavior. The following sections discuss how to train your employees to respond in case of a fire in the workplace.

Understanding OSHA Compliance

To most businesses, it is common knowledge that employers need to provide portable fire extinguishers, keep them accessible, maintain them so that they are fully charged and pressurized, and regularly inspect them, so they’re fully operable and compliant at all times. Many people miss that when extinguishers are provided in a workplace setting, OSHA requires employees to be trained once a year in their use.

Here are the OSHA guidelines that specify the need for employee fire extinguisher training:

• 1910.157(G)(1) Where the employer has provided portable fire extinguishers for employee use in the workplace, the employer shall also provide an educational program to familiarize employees with the general principles of fire extinguisher use and the hazards involved with incipient stage fire fighting.
• 1910.157(G)(2) The employer shall provide the education required in paragraph (G)(1) of this section upon initial employment and at least annually thereafter.

Have more questions about fire extinguishers? Start here:

• How Many Fire Extinguishers Do I Need in My Building? Learn More →
• How Often Should Fire Extinguishers Be Inspected? Learn More →
• Fire Extinguisher Recharging: What Everyone Should Know Learn More →
• How to Perform a Monthly Fire Extinguisher Inspection Learn More →
• Simple Answers to 5 Common Fire Extinguisher Location Questions Learn More →
• How to Safely Dispose of Expired Fire Extinguishers Learn More →
• What Size Fire Extinguisher Do I Need for My Business? Learn More →
• The Best Way to Store Fire Extinguishers in the Workplace Learn More →
• What is a Class K Fire Extinguisher Used For? Learn More →

Educating vs. Training and Conditioning

For some reason, the word "training" has a negative connotation to many people. They equate it to training a pet and don't see it as something we should be doing for our employees. Instead, many people prefer to implement "education and awareness" initiatives. However, there is a significant difference between education and training.

Military personnel, professional athletes, police officers—they are trained in their jobs to keep themselves and their teammates safe. Similarly, our employees should not simply be educated about fire in the workplace; they should be trained to protect themselves.

Responding to Fire in the Workplace

Here are the three most important things employees need to know about responding to fires in the workplace:

1. If a fire starts at work, you are not required to attempt to put out the fire—even if there is a fire extinguisher nearby.
2. If you see an incipient-stage fire at work, you should quickly make the decision to fight—discharge an extinguisher toward the fire—or flight—pull the building fire alarm and get out of the building. Whichever you choose, execute your plan quickly.
3. Many employees' first reaction in a fire is to call for a boss or authority figure. Employees need to be trained to react quickly, not to wait for instruction. Quick action saves lives and property.