Fire safety training is among some of the most important safety training that can be done in a workplace. Although the idea of ever needing to use fire safety training is a little bit terrifying, the idea of not being prepared for a fire is doubly terrifying, wouldn’t you say? You are responsible for fire safety training in the workplace if you’re an employer, an owner, a landlord, an occupier or anyone else who is in control of the premises - for example a facilities manager, a building manager or a risk assessor. If there is more than one responsible person, then you both need to work together to meet the responsibilities that you have to fulfil as part of your safety responsibility. If you are unsure what to do or how to do it, consider attending the Fire Warden Training Centre in Sydney to get your head around the requirements. It could be the difference between saving a life if anything ever happened.
As the responsible person, you need to do the following in order to ensure you’re adhering to the requirements of your environment:
* Perform a fire risk assessment of the premises and also review it regularly
* Implement appropriate fire safety measures
* Have an emergency plan in place
* Provide training for staff on fire safety and evacuation
When you are performing an assessment of the premises, you need to ensure that you are being thorough to keep people safe, and that you meet the requirements of your local legislation. You must consider the following:
* Are the evacuation routes clear of obstacles? You need to make sure that:
* Nothing gets in the way of travel on an evacuation route
* Nobody gets in the way of your evacuation route
* An evacuation route is the path taken to get out of the building. It is usually marked with signage to indicate that it is the way to get out
* You have your evacuation route marked out with exit signage that is clear and easy to read
* Your evacuation route is a minimum of one metre wide and leads to a road or open space where people are going to be safe from the effects of a fire or other potential risks
In addition to ensuring that you have an evacuation route that adheres to the above conditions, you need to ensure that:
* The evacuation route is clear for two metres outside the final exit that you have for your building - that is that nothing can impede an exit for two metres outside the final exit
* A final door is the last exit from your building
* Your exit doors have to be opened by a single downward pushing action on a single device - barrel locks are not acceptable for evacuation route doors
The vital importance of keeping people safe at work is due to the fact that if something happens, people need to know how to manage the risk and get out safely. Because every day is generally spent in safe working conditions, we become complacent with fire safety training. As a result, the evacuation and the fire safety training that we do needs to be foolproof so that everyone can get out safely in the event of something happening.
Spend some time on fire safety training in your workplace, and make sure that you are adhering to the correct fire safety rules for your local or state legislation. Don’t risk something happening under your watch! Having a safe workplace requires you to spend time on training, testing, implementing and updating fire safety measures.
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