Fire Safety Training | Know the drill

While many companies and organisations know the importance of good fire safety precautions within a building, the majority do not put the same effort and consideration into fire safety training.

Within any organisation containing staff, there should be two levels of fire training. The first level is for all staff in the building and the more advanced training should be delivered to those members of staff holding a responsible relevant position.  They may be Fire Wardens or Marshals, Health & Safety Managers, Building or Facility Management or Fire Safety Managers or the 'Responsible person' named in your fire risk assessment.  The number and type of roles will be heavily dependent on the organisation and number of occupants etc. 

 

Fire safety training for all staff members is a legal obligation

Each new member of staff should receive adequate fire safety training. While the first level of fire safety training can be more generalised in nature, you should take the time to ensure that it is personalised to the building. For example, you might tell your staff to 'Keep fire doors shut at all times', but showing them which doors are fire doors in the building and explaining why this is essential to ensure their means of escape during a fire situation can make all the difference when they are in danger.

The fire safety training videos available to users of our Complete Fire Safety Management can be useful during training sessions and the documents provided can assist you in providing thorough and relevant training sessions for all staff.

Advanced fire safety training for responsible persons

The training provided to these persons must be of a greater level than the general training, to ensure they understand all fire safety provisions, including the justification for their provision and the legislative requirements placed upon them.  

Whilst the responsible persons do not need to be Fire Engineers, they must have sufficient knowledge to ensure they know the relevance of fire safety precautions.  This knowledge is of paramount importance in certain situations: such as contractors undertaking works within a building,  and for example, having knowledge of which walls can be compromised with no remedial attention and which walls are required to prevent the passage of fire and smoke.

Similarly, should any alteration works be undertaken, such as modifying a space, e.g. from open plan to cellular design, it can seriously affect the fire exit route, fire safety precautions and fire safety training required.  

A number of elements within advanced fire safety training are critical, but are not always obvious to the 'untrained eye', hence the need for training to this level.  Having a more advanced level of knowledge will ensure that effective decisions can be made internally, as well as knowing when outside advice has to be sought.  This decision making process is fundamental, as there is two common ways an incorrect decision is found out.  Either enforcement, whereby relevant authorities inspect the building and find deficiencies which can lead to breaches in legislation, or when a fire occurs and the building does not achieve the required fire safety design objectives, which can have catastrophic results, as well as legislative implications.

Responsibility for fire safety training

The responsibility for training staff in fire safety and awareness is not always well defined.  Often contract staff, agency staff, or support staffs are not directly employed.  However, they still require a level of fire safety training.  The responsibility for this training can be via in-house training or can be a requirement of the operative's employer.  A clear agreement and understanding must be in place.

Fire safety training provides substantial benefits for a relatively small cost in monetary and time terms.  Human error is often at least part of the reason fire starts and develops, and adequate fire safety training helps to reduce those errors.  

If you would like to know more about the benefits of Complete Fire Safety Management's online fire risk assessment system or would like to discuss in-house training, please call Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663.