Fire safety should never be taken lightly because a fire can be caused by many different factors, and in an instant, it can destroy an entire building and its contents.  Many people take precautions around their homes to help prevent fires, but what about in an office or workspace?  A fire is just as likely to happen in an office building as in a home. An office fire can be very dangerous because there are usually plenty of employees and furniture, such as desks and chairs, densely packed in working areas.  Everyone deserves to work in a safe environment, and it is up to each employee of an office to ensure that they are taking fire safety precautions for the benefit of everyone.  The following are essential fire safety tips that will help prevent office fires.

Maintain a No Smoking Environment

Many states have already made it illegal to smoke indoors, but if you live in a state that hasn’t, it is a good idea to ban smoking inside your office building.  Smoking is a significant fire hazard within buildings, especially offices with loads of flammable paper and furniture. All it takes is one careless employee to start a fire with a cigarette.  It is safer to ask your employees to smoke outside.

Train Everyone on the Use and Location of your Fire Extinguishers

Every employee should know where the fire extinguishers are in your office and how to use them to put out a small fire.  Covering this information with new employees and including a document with the locations and instructions for using the fire extinguishers in the employee handbook are effective ways for distributing this information.  If the employees are trained to put out small fires with fire extinguishers, the chance of a more destructive fire occurring will be significantly reduced.  It never hurts to run fire drills every so often, so your employees know where the extinguishers and fire exits are.

Follow all Safety Precautions for Handling and Storing Hazardous Materials

Some plants or offices may have hazardous materials on hand depending on the nature of their business and if this is the case, hazardous materials must be handled and stored with the utmost caution.  Many hazardous materials may be flammable or dangerous to your health. Hence, it is essential to establish protocols for handling the materials as well as what should happen in the event of a spill or accident.

Minimize Paper Clutter

Paper clutter is still a problem in many office settings and a significant fire hazard.  Reducing the amount of paper clutter around the office will significantly reduce this risk while also creating a neater environment.  Some practical ways for reducing paper clutter include filing papers in metal filing cabinets, digitally storing important files to reduce the number of hard copies, encouraging the recycling of unwanted papers, and establishing a day for regular recycling pick-up to get the excess paper out of your office.

Maintain your Electronic Equipment

Offices usually use plenty of electrical equipment such as computers, servers, copy machines, and printers. If these machines are not maintained properly, they could increase the risk of a fire.  Make sure your employees understand the importance of reporting any type of malfunction in the equipment to have it fixed immediately. It is also wise to have machines that are heavily used routinely serviced to prevent breakdowns and malfunctions.

Office buildings are at just as much risk for fires as homes, and the dense atmosphere of an office makes the possibility of an office fire very dangerous for employees.  Making sure that the employees within an office understand the potential danger of an office fire and follow the above-mentioned fire safety tips will help significantly reduce the risk of a fire.  If a fire does occur in your office, calling a fire damage restoration professional right away is the best course of action for getting your office repaired or restored quickly to minimize the interruption to your daily business activities.  By getting the employees in your office on the same page about fire safety, you can help protect your office from a fire threat.

About Vince Sandri

Vince Sandri is a content writer and blogger with more than 12 years of experience. His expertise is in creating content related to disaster restoration, including information about preventing and reacting to natural disasters like flooding, water damage, fire and smoke damage, mold growth, storm damage and more.
Vince has been the main contributor to RestorationMasterFinder.com since 2014. Over that time, he has written numerous service pages and blogs for disaster restoration providers featured on RestorationMasterFinder.com. Vince has done extensive research and covered a wide range of topics relating to disaster restoration to help homeowners, business owners, and property managers better protect their property. He understands the problems that disasters like flooding, fire, smoke, and mold can cause as well as the best ways to respond to these issues to limit the damage.
Vince completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Aurora University and his master’s degree at DePaul University. He has been writing SEO website pages, blogs, and press releases since 2012. Vince is also a musician and can be seen playing in the Chicago, IL area.