These days, commercial fire alarm systems are very important to have if you own a business. Have you ever been in a department store or another type of business when the fire alarms went off? If there was a real fire you were probably grateful that the business was able to alert you that there was a fire in the building and you were able to make it out safely. There are a lot of reasons that all businesses should have a fire alarm system installed in them. Here are some of the ones that are at the top of the list, along with some key issues you will need to consider in their set up.
1. One important reason to have an alarm system in your business is of course so that you, your employees, and customers will know that there is a fire in the building. The first two minutes are the most critical when a fire occurs, so it is important that people are alerted so that they will be able to evacuate in time.
2. It is also stipulated in law that you must have a system installed, so if you are ever caught without one, you could face fines and penalties as well as warnings that your business might get shut down if you do not get one installed. There are several parts of any system that are important to make sure you have.
3. A thorough fire risk assessment needs to be carried out to determine the high risk issues and how to mitigate against them. Deciding on the type and scope of a fire alarm system is key to this. Some will be complex wireless or wired systems that detect smoke and/or heat, and are split in to different geographical sectors if a business is large. This enable most of the operation to continue in the event of a minor incident, and helps direct the emergency services to the right location. Other systems will be much simpler. Muster points, evacuation routes and determining how to tackle the fire will also need to be defined.
4. The risk assessment will also include deciding which fire types are likely to occur and therefore which types of fire extinguisher to have in place. For example, there are specific extinguishers for cooking oil/fat fires, others for combustibles like paper and wood, and others for electric fires. Placement and the capacity of the extinguishers are just as important.
5. Something that is overlooked that is very important is the fire extinguisher bracket that you use to hold your extinguishers with. You want to make sure that the brackets are very strong and durable. This is so that they will be able to hold the weight of the fire extinguishers and so that people will be able to access them when they are needed. If the bracket is not reliable then you might have trouble getting the extinguisher off the wall it is installed on or you might find that you have to locate the fire extinguisher because the bracket broke down and someone moved the extinguisher out of the way.
6. A fire safety system may also include a sprinkler system, or hose and reel placements too.
7. Finally, a fire alarm and fire extinguishing system will need to be complemented by a maintenance and training program to ensure kit is working and staff know how to respond to the alarm and the action they will need to take, whether that be simply evacuating and contacting the emergency services, or in some situations tackling the fire themselves.
It is very important to have commercial fire alarm systems installed in every business. It is also important to have all of the important equipment that is needed for that system. If you are someone who owns a business and do not have a system in place, then you will want to start looking at the ones that are available to find one to use. Not only are you risking having your business shut down but you want to make sure that people are alerted if a fire ever happens.
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