Fire Equipment And Education

Fire equipment is a vital commodity in every business and residence. Most public buildings are required by law to have such equipment of a certain standard in place. This is true even for buildings that are constructed in a flame preventative configuration. They may limit the damage a fire will cause, but cannot prevent a fire from occurring in the first place and so will need equipment to put out the fire.

As far as fire prevention goes, the following need to be considered:

Installation of fire equipment

I should not need to explain this. How do you stop a fire if there is no equipment to use? It is the responsibility of the building owners and managers to ensure that the right fire equipment is installed in the building so that in case of a fire, the firemen have something to work with. Residents would also be able to use the equipment to put out smaller fires in order to prevent them from getting out of control.

Maintenance of fire equipment

Of course, equipment that is present but not working is just as bad as having none to begin with, if not worse. Again, the owners and managers of the building must maintain the fire equipment according to the schedule indicated by the manufacturers in order for the equipment to remain in working condition. A broken fire extinguisher is not going to stop any flames or save nay lives.

Education of residents

And then, if you do not know how to use the fire equipment, how is it any use to you. The building should have regular training sessions conducted by the manufacturers of the equipment to ensure that at least some of the residents are able to use the fire equipment that they have had installed. All the residents should be very aware of the standard practice in case of a fire. To ensure that this is almost second nature, it is advisable to have regular fire drills to keep everyone on their toes and aware of what to do. This will also highlight any areas that may cause congestion and allow the designers of the fire escape plan to modify it to fix this problem.

Prevention and treatment of injury

When there is a fire, injury is inevitable. The goal of the fire equipment and fire escape plan is to minimizes it. For the inevitable injuries, it is advisable to have first aid kits in selected areas to treat the injured whilst you wait for paramedics to arrive.

Every building should observe these few guidelines and thus keep their residents safe and minimize the damage a fire can cause. Have the correct fire equipment installed, have the equipment maintained correctly and educate the residents so as to be able to make the building as safe as possible. Also have first aid equipment available should a fire occur to treat any injuries until the paramedics are able to arrive on the scene and deal with the more heavily injured.