Construction Fire Risks

Health and safety at work is a vital element of delivering on the government’s promise to advance the physical condition and happiness of the working age populace. Your health and safety at work is managed by a cross departmental partnership between the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, the Health and Safety Executive, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government.

New fire safety regulations have recently been passed that will affect all workplaces in England and Wales. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, as it is known, is designed to turn almost all the earlier fire safety regulations into one all-inclusive law. Except for domestic premises and some kinds of premises that are a specific risk and where other regulations are in force, the Fire Safety Order will apply to all buildings in use.

A fire risk assessment places the emphasis on preventing fires and reducing risk, and fire certificates are no longer mandatory. The five steps to decreasing fire hazards and reducing risk are [...]

Fire prevention reduces the economic loss a fire may cause to an employer, who may have to close operations temporarily or permanently. Employees should also practise fire prevention, since a fire may put them temporarily or permanently out of work.

Copiers, coffee makers and hot plates and other heat producing equipment and electrical appliances are frequently overlooked as possible fire hazards. You should disconnect electrical equipment and call maintenance personnel if it breaks down or gives off an odd smell. Extension cords are also fire hazards: keep them clear of doorways and other areas where they can be stepped on or chafed, and never plug one extension cord into another.

Don’t touch your fire exits! The exit devices frequently come to the attention when the building owner wants to take away or override its functions to provide additional or intense building security. Safety codes call for the use of fire exits in particular circumstances, and most codes forbid the use of any other lock or mechanism on the door that would prevent the use of the device or confuse the user.

There are a lot of exit signs to choose from, and they are a necessary part of any practical safety plan. Smoke will seriously reduce the visibility of exit signs, so they should be as bright as possible. The text on these signs should be as large as possible and the spacing between the characters should be reasonably wide.

Any system that reliably marks a means of egress in the event of power failures, hazards, or other crises can be referred to as an emergency lighting option. Normal supplies of AC power in buildings often fail during an emergency. Even if such power failures occur, emergency lighting ensures that stairways, aisles, corridors, ramps, escalators and other passageways leading to safety stay lit to direct evacuees to the nearest escape route and make possible a smooth and swift exit. Building codes in many countries require that all non-residential structures are equipped with emergency lighting.