Many of the fires that occur in the UK happen within commercial spaces, these often are identified as workplace incidents. However, these workplace incidents can be prevented by taking steps to reduce the likelihood of fires occurring at your work premises.

See below the 3 steps that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of office fires.

1. Avoid fuelling the fire

In most office environments it is not uncommon to find multiple combustible materials in the form of various office items, such as papers, cardboard, and woods. However, if these combustible materials are allowed to build up to excessive amounts, they could well prove to be the perfect kind of fuel for any fire that breaks out in an office.

To prevent fuelling any kind of fire breakout that occurs in your office, you should ensure that you manage theses materials appropriately never letting the amount accumulate to unsafe levels. This can be easily achieved by regularly disposing of unneeded materials and by storing the majority of combustible materials that you do require, somewhere safely away from the office.

2. Avoid clutter

As touched upon in our previous post, cleaning maintenance is absolutely critical to not only ensuring your working environment is hygienic, but also for ensuring safety. If your office is not being regularly cleaned and maintained, dirt, dust and other mess such as grease and slimy substances can and will buildup. Over time, the dirt and dust and grease, as well as other mess, can grow to cause serious fire risk to your premises.

How can dirt and dust lead to fire risk? They can become a fire risk if they are left to sit and accumulate in poorly ventilated areas of your commercial premises. The various messy substances impact machinery and equipment by causing them to overheat, if equipment and machinery overheat, the risk of them sparking a fire increases significantly. Just by ensuring that machinery and equipment aren't left unattended and are regularly checked, you can eliminate this fire risk.

3. Ensure electrical equipment is tested and inspected

Faulty electrical equipment and systems are the main contributor to the leading cause of the majority of fires in the UK, electrically caused fires. As the responsible person or duty holder for your commercial premises, It is absolutely critical that you do not allow anything electrical that could cause harm to occupants on your commercial premises, go unchecked.

By ensuring that you have a sufficient Electrical Compliance programme in place, you are taking huge strides towards ensuring the safety of all occupants on site. Any wiring that is frayed, electrical equipment and systems that are damaged or showing signs of significant wear and tear MUST be checked, tested, and treated or replaced where necessary.

If you require any commercial services from us, whether it be Electrical Compliance, Fire Safety Compliance, Fire Stopping, Building Maintenance, Legionella Compliance, Remote Monitoring, Rolec EV Charging Points, or any other service that we supply throughout the UK, please contact us today - 01604 696113.