The responsible people must make sure that their personnel is provided with adequate fire safety training
According to the Fire Safety Regulatory Reform Order 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
A sudden fire explosion can occur within a few seconds and can result in severe damage to lives, businesses and properties. A disaster can occur at any time within the organization and we hardly remain prepared for it. If proper precautions and essential small steps are taken beforehand, such a disaster can be reversed.
Therefore, fire safety training should be carried out in every work environment and employees should be actively involved to control and minimize such fire hazards at work.
Adequate fire training ensures the safety and health of the staff, and conducting annual training can help keep them in practice. So, this post explains several aspects of fire safety training, including how often should one take and who is responsible for fire safety at work.
What is Fire Safety Training?
Fire safety training help trainees familiarize themselves with the role and duties to protect fire hazards. It explores the risks and causes of fire as well as how to react and respond in the event of a fire hazard.
The fire safety course offers vital information to your industry for fire awareness. It also includes knowledge about the nature of fire, fire safety signposts, fire risks and fire safety procedures.
Why Fire Safety Training is Vital
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) puts a legal duty on employers to ensure the well-being of their staff. It also emphasizes employers conduct regular fire drills for health and safety reasons, as well as have a safe evacuation plan.
Adequate fire safety training is vital to ensure employers and their staff are fulfilling legal obligations to implement safe working practices to ensure a safe working environment.
Who is Accountable for the Fire Safety at Work?
The following individuals are responsible for fire safety in the workplace or an organization:
- The owners
- The employers
- The landlords
- Building managers
- The risk assessors
If more than one individual is accountable for fire safety on the premises, then they should work together to guarantee the effective running of the workplace.
How Often do You Need to do Fire Safety Training?
Fire safety training is crucial in the workplace to make sure that workers have a clear understanding of the correct safety procedures if a fire occurs. Individuals within any organization must be made aware of the fire triangle, and safe evacuation routes and be provided with adequate guidance, information and training on fire safety equipment.
How often should fire safety or fire marshal training be undertaken is the question that is asked time and time again. So as a general rule, employers must make sure that their staff must practice fire safety every 12 months so they keep their skills up to date and polished.
Proper training not only ensures that the staff remain safe but also ensures the safety of the visitors to the premises.
What Should be Provided in a Fire Safety Training Course?
It is important to train the office staff in basic fire safety procedures to deal with the fire hazards on the work premises.
A fire safety course such as a fire warden course covers the following:
- Roles and responsibilities of fire warden
- Fire prevention principles
- Sources of ignition or fuel
- Safe systems of work
- Fire safety equipment
- Control measures to avoid fire occurrences
- Fire evacuation responsibility of a fire warden
- Carrying out fire drills
- Fire evacuation arrangements for disabled people
- Extinguishing small fires
Why Does Fire Safety Training Need to be Refreshed?
As the business grows, so does the number of staff they employ along with the training needs. Employers should never assume that their new hires are trained enough on fire safety procedures. As the old staff is given the required training, the new ones need the same as well.
In other cases, a business or an organization may choose to change its premises, which in turn requires additional staff training for the safe use of equipment. Therefore, refresher training is vital to educate both old and new employees.
Other Fire Safety Courses
Some more fire safety courses that help both employers and their staff to better understand and control fire hazards are:
Fire Marshal Training
The fire marshal training explores the roles and responsibilities of fire wardens. It also explains the fire prevention principles, safe systems of work and fire safety equipment to identify and control fire hazards in case of an emergency.
Taking this course prepares trainees to understand the fire evacuation responsibilities of fire wardens as well as ways to extinguish small fires.
Fire Extinguisher Training
The fire extinguisher training provides trainees with awareness of fire risks posed in the workplace. It explains the type of fire and extinguishers and the selection of the right extinguisher according to the fire type. Taking such a course help to enhance training compliance as well reduces financial implications posed due to fire accidents at work.
Fire Risk Assessment
The fire risk assessment training course walks training through the vital steps needed to conduct fire risk assessment within a workplace. responsible persons are legally required to identify fire safety risks and implement effective control measures to minimize these hazards.
This course helps implement an appropriate action plan to evaluate and mitigate fire risks on the work premises.
This training course covers the following aspects from spotting the fire hazards to risk control measures, from conducting a risk assessment to implementing safety precautions. It also underpins the legal principles to ensure the health and safety of every individual at work.
Conclusion
Fire explosions can occur at any time within the workplace that can result in loss of property or life. If you are a responsible person for a business or an organization, you must provide adequate fire safety training to your personnel to ensure workplace safety.
But one question that comes to people’s minds time and time again is how often do you need to do fire safety training.
This blog post covers everything you need to know about fire safety and fire marshal training, what should be covered in the course, who has the responsibility for workplace safety and why one needs to refresh their knowledge.
This course does not give hands-on knowledge but provides awareness level information that can help employers and their staff to implement best practices to reduce fire risks.
