Fires happen. And in manufacturing environments, the potential for a fire-related incident means you need to be ready to keep your employees safe should disaster strike. Are you prepared to handle a fire emergency?
The potential for fires in manufacturing and metalworking environments exists—even when employees and safety teams use best practices in addressing hazards and reducing risks. That’s particularly true when chemicals and high-voltage electrical equipment are in use.
The most recent data on fires in U.S. industrial and manufacturing facilities shows that nearly 38,000 fires are reported each year, according to a 2018 report from the National Fire Protection Association.
“Structure fires are more common in manufacturing or processing properties,” NFPA says, and adds that “electrical distribution and lighting equipment was involved in 24 percent of structure fires.”
In fact, most facilities are required to have an emergency action plan to respond to a fire incident.
“If fire extinguishers are required or provided in your workplace, and if anyone will be evacuating during a fire or other emergency,” the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fire protection standard (29 CFR 1910.157) requires that your business have an EAP, the agency explains.
Get tips on how to practice your emergency action plan in our article “Emergency Preparedness Training: Tabletop Exercises vs. Mock Drills."
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You made a good point that emergency contacts should always be regularly updated because we can never know when emergencies will occur. I'm currently planning to open up a restaurant downtown and I starting to brush on my options for safety measures. Perhaps I should consult with an expert in fire extinguisher safety to know the optimal spots where I could get them placed.
https://midlanticfire.com/
26Thanks for visiting Better MRO, Alice. It's always better to be prepared especially when it comes to keeping your staff safe.
32You made a good point that having an evacuation plan is important to communicate properly with employees. My current goal is to start my own warehousing business since I have some experience in managing inventories. Hiring a commercial fire prevention service will make sure that such a business would always have some protection from fire hazards.
http://www.ncilifesafety.com/commercial-fire-prevention/
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