Tips To Keep In Mind For Preventing Fire In Commercial Buildings

Fire incidents can prove to be hazardous for a commercial building. Unexpected fires and explosions in the building are triggered by various risk factors like open flames, poor pipefitting, improperly stored combustible materials, or faulty gas lines. These incidents can cause severe damage to the respiratory system, potential disfigurements and varying degrees of burns. 

But, thankfully, there are many ways to prevent a dangerous fire incident and ensure the safety of your employees and customers. This guide will talk about some of the crucial tips to help avoid fire incidents in commercial buildings. So, let’s begin with our discussion.  

Test Smoke Alarms Regularly

One of the best and easiest ways to prevent a fire incident is by regularly checking your smoke alarms. To carry out this test, you first need to search for the button on the side of the alarm. If it only lets out a small beep or fails to trigger, you must change the batteries immediately.  

A non-functioning alarm fails to alert people in the event of a fire outbreak, and any delay in evacuation of the building ultimately leads to a tragedy. If you encounter any difficulties performing this job successfully, you can take the help of a professional passive fire protection London or Kent service provider.  

Inspect Heating Equipment  

Commercial buildings need heat to stay comfortable for several months of the year, depending on the climate. Boilers, furnaces, and radiators come with overheating risks like other mechanical equipment. In turn, this can result in a major fire incident. 

So, if you fail to adopt proper precautions, then space heaters and other heating equipment can prove dangerous. It will help if you focus on having your furnace inspected by professional passive fire protection companies. It will make sure that it is in proper working order. 

A skilled professional recommends cleaning heating equipment annually to increase protection significantly. It is also vital to conduct a passive fire survey to ensure that everything is working correctly and in the correct order. 

Be Careful While Working With Cooking Equipment

Restaurants are the first name that comes to mind whenever you think of commercial buildings with cooking equipment. Any business that is involved in serving food has a kitchen area. 

Unattended stoves, high cooking temperatures, flammable oils, etc., are all leading causes of commercial fires. So, it is recommended to stay alert and careful while your staff are cooking food. Irrespective of the reason, it is never a good idea to walk away from a lit stove. 

If you or your staff have to leave the kitchen for some reason, then it is a must first to shut off the stove and remove pans from the stove. Being cautious and concentrated will aid in the prevention of commercial fires. It will ensure the protection of your customers and employees and prevent any significant fire incidents. 

Check Your Electrical And Lighting Equipment

Throughout the years, electricity has contributed to making our lives easier. But, it is only applicable if you use it properly. All modern commercial buildings have electrical wiring, particularly behind the wall for power and light. Unfortunately, electricity always comes with fire risks. 

Overloaded circuits, defective or old wiring, faulty fuses, loose connections, imbalanced electrical loads and many other lighting or electrical issues can develop, resulting in sparks or overheating. Thereby, it leads to a fire incident. Due to this reason, as a responsible commercial building owner, you must inspect the electrical work by a passive fire protection company. 

You can also go for a passive fire survey to maximize your and your employee’s protection. It will let you know where issues are and where changes are required. It would help if you also kept a close eye out for frayed cords and exposed wires along with the inspection. 

What if you come across any frequent issues with your circuit breakers? These issues include having warm or discoloured wall outlets and getting a tingling sensation whenever you touch an appliance or see sparks from an outlet. In all those instances, you need to call an electrician immediately.

Safely Dispose Of Smoking Materials

Cigarettes, lighted cigars and other smoking materials can cause fire breakout if disposed of inappropriately. Although, in the present years, the rate of fires caused by smoking materials has been reduced with “fire-safe” cigarettes. This particular product comes with reduced ignition strength. 

But, still, these are regarded as one of the top five most common commercial fire causes. So, to ensure the protection of your commercial building, you need to make sure that all the smoking materials are safely disposed of. Another important thing is always keeping flammable items far away from heat sources. By doing this, you would prevent many significant fire incidents. 

Final Verdict

After reading this comprehensive guide, we hope you understand the best approaches to prevent significant fire incidents in commercial buildings. You can successfully avoid any major fire incident by strictly adhering to these tips. 

But, it is equally important to focus on passive fire protection strategies suggested by a professional fire protection company like CA Fire Protection. Contact our expert team today if you look forward to conducting a fire protection survey or seeking our recommendations.