fire safety management system

A fire safety management system is mandatory for every factory but for construction sites, this becomes an even bigger requirement to take note of. From combustible and flammable products to energized electrical components, there’s no lack of hazards a construction site faces when it comes to a dangerous fire spreading over the entire place, risking workers’ lives and resulting in financial and human losses. In this blog, we’re going to talk about the risks a lack of a fire safety management system may pose and why it’s important to have one at hand.

NFPA Stats

NFPA conducted a 5-year study, concluded in 2014, to assess residential projects (excluding 2 or 3-unit properties) that were under construction or undergoing renovation. The study found an estimate of around 830 construction fires, resulting in 12 civilian and 70 firefighter-related injuries, and including $56 million in property damage. Furthermore, the study found about 400 renovation fires, resulting in one fatality, 8 civilian, and 60 firefighter-related injuries, whereas $17 million in property damage.

Hence, every construction site needs a proper fire safety management system to prevent these risks from coming to life. In this blog, we’re going to talk about why fire safety is important for the construction industry and what you can do to prevent fires from breaking out.
On that note, it’s also important to provide your workers with the right PPE to ensure they’re safe in case their job requires them to get exposed to high levels of heat, like welding. For this purpose, you can look into Welding Apparel for your workers.

Legal Requirements

When it comes to fire hazards, there are a lot of regulations in place to ensure that the factory management is taking the right precautions to ensure their workers aren’t exposed to dangerous environments including fire breakouts. For this purpose, having a fire safety management system at hand can provide the construction site or factory with the necessary training and knowledge needed to take the right steps and ensure the site is safe from fire breakouts.

OSHA states a few mandatory requirements for every factory site including the construction industry. The following are some pointers from their guidelines:

  • An alarm system should be established at the worksite by an employer to alert all workers on the job site and local fire departments in the case of a fire outbreak.
  • All employees must be trained to use fire extinguishers; training must be provided at the time of employment and once every year after that.
  • It’s also required that the training should include a session covering how to determine when a fire is too big to control, what kind of extinguisher to use, and the PASS system of early-stage firefighting.
  • Buildings or structures containing flammable liquids or gases must be constructed of fire-resistant material.

It’s also legally required to provide your workers with industrial-level fire resistant gloves, hence you can look into the leather glove collection by ELC.

Hazards

There are two major areas where every construction site’s fire safety management system needs to have some semblance of control over. They include ignition hazards and fuel hazards.

Ignition Hazards

  • Electrical faults
  • Arson
  • Lightning
  • Portable Heaters
  • Smoking
  • Hot Working

Fuel Hazards

  • Flammable liquids and gasses
  • Waste materials
  • Fire retardant scaffolds
  • Combustible building components

All the above-given facts and statistics are the reason why a proper fire safety management system is needed at every workplace. Every factory owner needs to be aware of occupational health and safety standards to provide their employees with the right level of protection. Below, we’ve discussed a few pointers on the kind of measures you can take to control any fire hazards.

Control Measures

  • Have a sufficient amount of fire extinguishers at hand, as stated by OSHA.
  • Have a sufficient amount of exit routes in place at the construction site.
  • Construction sites should be regularly supervised as the project moves forward, to ensure all safety standards are in check, abiding by the standards laid out by OSHA.
  • The number of waste materials at construction sites should be limited to ensure no combustible materials are present unsupervised.

Although all of these instructions and measurements seem complex to some people, they’re not very different from the standards followed in already-constructed buildings. The only difference is that an ongoing building project has organic threats that need to be properly taken care of before resulting in dangers for the workers and the construction site itself.

Furthermore, in the case of an uncontrollable fire hazard, you need to have the contacts of your nearest fire station at hand to report the issue immediately and get it under control, after evacuating all your workers safely out of danger. If you’re looking for safety products and PPEs to provide to your workers at a construction site, you can look into Elite-Leather Creations for your gear.

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