Welcome to Colins Latest Safety Short! Today we are going to discuss Fire Safety! Listen closely to this brief guide. Colin urges you to always seek advice from trained and qualified professionals but offers these tips as a fantastic place to start when discussing Fire safety within the workplace.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Get a competent Fire risk assessment (carried out by appropriate personnel). This includes risk assessments specifically for fire safety, but also observations for future risks. This is almost always carried out by a trained professional or professional organisation with the correct certification to do so.
Look at the findings of the assessment! Issues such as sources of ignition (electricity, naked flame, heat sources) and fuel (dry materials like wood, foam and paper) for a fire or potential fire hazards
Clear guidance for your employees, making sure they understand the obvious and potentially hidden hazards within the workplace (including procedures and preventative measures, as well as redundancy for if/when a fire occurs).
Making sure that employees understand their roles when it comes to fire safety! This includes different roles, such as wardens and trained personnel who know how to correctly use fire extinguishers (surprisingly common for many people to not know!). Also, consider who and when certain personnel are required to contact each other and the specific circumstances and measures to ensure this happens.
ABOUT THE HOST Colin Nottage
‘Making health and safety as important as everything else we do.’
This is the belief that Colin is passionate about and through his consultancy Influential Management Group (IMG) is able to spread into industry. Colin works at a strategic level with company owners and board members. He helps business leaders establish and achieve their health and safety ambitions.
He has developed a number of leading competency improvement programmes that are delivered across industry and his strengths are his ability to take a practical approach to problem-solving and being able to liaise at all levels within an organisation.
Colin also runs a company that vets contractors online and a network that develops and support H&S consultancies to become better businesses.
Colin chairs the Construction Dust Partnership, an industry collaboration directly involving many organisations, including the Health and Safety Executive.
He is a Post Graduate Tutor at Strathclyde University and a highly sought-after health and safety speaker and trainer. He has a Post Graduate Certificate in Safety and Risk management, an engineering degree and is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
