Fire Safety - Training Employees

A fire in the workplace can happen so suddenly, that is why it's essential that employees clearly understand what to do in the event of a crisis. But it can be hard to know where to start. What should be addressed in employee fire safety training for Oklahoma businesses?

Your Tulsa or Oklahoma City fire safety program will need to be tailored to what the particular fire hazards are for your business. These hazards may even be different for different areas of your business and the various emergency procedures in place.

Naturally, fire safety starts with preventing fires. Employees should know basic fire prevention steps such as proper disposal of cigarettes in any designated smoking areas, good housekeeping, turning off and unplugging appliances, not overloading outlets, and replacing any cracked or broken electrical cords.

Employees need to know the three elements a fire needs to ignite (fuel, heat, and oxygen) so that they understand how best to prevent a fire and how best to react to one. Different fire extinguishers, for example, work in different ways to eliminate one of these three elements.

The next part of proper fire safety training for employees encompasses making them familiar with the fire alarms and fire suppression systems in the Tulsa or OKC business. As part of a fire emergency plan, employees should know the place and use of the building’s smoke detectors, fire alarms, exit doors, fire doors, sprinklers, fire extinguishers and fire alarm monitoring service. Everyone should also know what they should do in the event of a fire.

“Review the actions to be taken if an employee discovers a fire. Remember to stress the importance of 1) alerting others in the building to begin evacuation, 2) phoning 9-1-1 as quickly as possible (even if your alarm system is monitored), and 3) closing all doors as you evacuate,” the Seattle Fire Department encouraged.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) obliges employees to be trained in the “general principles of fire extinguisher use and the hazards involved with incipient stage fire fighting . . . upon initial employment and at least annually thereafter.”

It’s also vital that employees understand the five different classes of fires and how these relate to the various classes of Tulsa and OKC fire extinguishers. They need to understand that fire extinguishers must be used on the specific class of fire they were made for and if they’re not, the fire hazard can actually be made worse.

Employees thus need to correctly identify fire extinguishers, finding them in the building, and quickly identifying what class of fire they are designed to be used with by their labels. It’s good to assist employees with both verbal instruction and actual hands-on training for how to use a fire extinguisher.

An essential part of knowing how to use a fire extinguisher is also knowing when to use a fire extinguisher in your Tulsa or OKC business. Teach employees to properly determine whether a portable fire extinguisher should be used or if the fire is too large. Portable fire extinguishers are only designed to control fires in the emerging stage and when there is still a safe exit available, not when the fire has become larger than the individual.

Knowing how to properly use fire safety equipment is a necessity for employees. Holding regular fire drills and practice sessions will ensure that everyone at your business remains safe in the event of a fire.

The Tulsa and OKC fire alarm and fire suppression system experts at Mac Systems, Inc. would be glad to design and install the right fire protection system for your company and conduct regular fire extinguisher inspections and maintenance for your entire fire detection and suppression system.