Back to office move ‘major risk’ if fire safety not prioritised warns fire safety experts
As many workers return to offices, the fire safety experts at Ceasefire are urging facilities managers and team leaders to make fire safety a key concern.
Ceasefire manufactures a globally certified range of fire safety solutions. It warns that many workers returning to facilities that have laid dormant may be in unknown danger if the building’s fire safety preparedness hasn’t been tested or changed during lockdown.
In order to comply with “The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005” fire extinguishers must be recently serviced. Given many commercial premises and office locations will have been closed for a considerable period of time now, existing 12-month service certificates could well have expired. Compliance is a legal obligation for employers. A failure to ensure that the necessary precautions and measures are in place will lead to a non-compliance warning or in more extreme cases, a fine and possibility of a custodial sentence.
Ashutosh Mangal, Ceasefire Industries managing director said, “We understand that businesses have faced a terribly tough time over the last 12 months and some may be reluctant to allocate precious funding to ensure compliance but this is a critical issue. Safety across the whole office should be front of mind. Many businesses have allowed IT equipment to be taken from the office to enable remote working, so the whole computer, monitor and associated electronic devices will have been uprooted and transplanted into home working environments. After a year and a half being subjected to children tugging and tripping over cables, dogs chewing on laptops and hamsters nesting in printers, back to work equipment inspections should be top of the list for those welcoming teams back to the office.
“Ensuring that IT equipment and electronic devices are being returned to the office environment in a safe and functional condition is key. Even something seemingly as innocent as the wrong adaptor being used could cause a fire, so it’s imperative that equipment such as fire extinguishers are thoroughly checked and serviced by a professional.”
Ceasefire advises that requirements for fire safety processes may also need to be re-addressed, with items such as plastic shields, different hot desks and spaced-out team members all requiring new solutions to extinguish a fire.
Ceasefire is keen to ensure that the trade is able to have these frank conversations and is looking to speak directly to trade partners to ensure that they are making business leaders aware of the risks.
Mangal adds, “We know that no one likes to think about the worst-case scenario, but I believe that as a sector, now is the time when we need to be louder than ever about potential concerns. We have invested significantly in UK stock and premises with a dedicated warehouse and testing facility and are seeking trade partners who want to demonstrate new ways of providing fire safety for the ‘new normal.’”
Ceasefire will showcase its range of suppression systems including eco-friendly and retrofittable lines at the Fire Safety Event 2021 which will take place at Birmingham’s NEC, 7 – 9 September.
To find out more, visit: www.ceasefire.co.uk