Fire in the Home Escape Planning
People are aware that most businesses and public venues, must, by law, create a plan to facilitate everyone to escape in the event of a fire. But when was the last time, if ever, that you thought about what your escape plan at home would be in the event of a fire?
As horrible as this subject is, we wanted to give you some of the truths. You are more likely to have a fire, be injured in a fire or worse, die in a fire in your home rather than in the workplace. So why would you only have a plan for the workplace?
Then think a little deeper:
At work, most people are alert, not under the influence of anything, mostly of an age to make reasonable decisions. Is the same true at home?
At work, the buildings are generally designed and engineered to assist you in a fire with compartmentation, fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire drills, induction training, fire extinguishers, minimum 30-minute self-closing fire doors, policies and procedures, regular training, evacuation aids etc. Is the same true at home?
Please consider what you and every member of your family would do in these horrible circumstances. Some simple steps to get you started are:
- Make a plan. Discuss it with everyone in the household who can understand it.
- Test your plan. Following the making of the plan, test it unannounced by setting off your smoke alarms to see if people do what you discussed, if not reiterate or amend the plan.
- Close doors. Commercial buildings will have automatic closing doors, you probably haven’t got that luxury at home. Doors will be your best friend! They compartment the fire, keeping it one place but most importantly, they keep the majority of the smoke in the room on fire, therefore, affording you a window of safety to use your escape routes which is likely to be your hallway.
- Turn off electrics, do not leave them on standby. If an electrical appliance is on standby, it still has power going to it, switch it off properly
- Consider your electrics. Electrical fires cause most fires in the home. Your workplace will carry our PAT testing and have their mains electrics checked at least 5 yearly, when was the last time you considered your electrics at home? Consider the age and amount of use of your appliances. Consider that if your home was previously lived in before you, you have no idea who has ‘tinkered’ with the electrics to save money. We’d seriously suggest getting an EICR ( Electrical Installation Condition Report ) carried out by a qualified electrician. It won’t cost much but could potentially save your life.
- Don’t have things plugged in and charging whilst you’re asleep, most importantly in bedrooms! If a fire is to start in the place and time that you are most at risk ( whilst asleep), your chances of a safe evacuation are lessened. We will cover it in another video, but consider smoke alarms in your bedrooms, not just your hallways.
- General housekeeping. Keep things like ovens and grills clean, hallways clear of obstructions etc. Every small thing that you do, will mean less risk of a fire but should the worst happen, a greater chance of safe escape.
These are just some common problems that we’d share with you. Followers of ours will note that we regularly share helpful information so please feel free to keep in touch with us. If there is anything that you’d specifically like us to talk about, tell us via social media or call us on 0800 009 6876 or reach us at [email protected].
You can find some useful information in the Governments guide here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564803/Fire-Safety-in-the-Home.pdf
Feel free to visit our website here: https://1cstc.co.uk/
Have a safe day, from the team at 1st Choice Safety Training & Consultancy, your 1st choice for safety.
