Fire Safety Tips When Working From Home…

If you are one of the millions of people in the country who are working from home, you must do everything you can to ensure fire safety at home. This is for your own protection and that of your family. Some employers may take steps to provide training regarding this, and even some equipment for protection against fire. But all companies may not be as diligent.  Regardless of whether your employer takes responsibility or not, you should be aware of the importance of fire safety at home and employ the necessary measures to fireproof not just your workspace, but the whole premises of your home.

You are Responsible

If you have an active home office, you are responsible for ensuring safety of the workplace; so you must be diligent about it. You may have trouble getting your insurer to pay if you haven’t taken the necessary precautions. 

Assess your Fire Risk

Evaluate your home, especially your office space, and identify potentially hazardous spots, and also a list of who is at risk. Not only do you need to take measures to decrease the risk of a fire breaking out, but also ascertain how to escape the building in case a fire does start. You will need to conduct a detailed review of your home and think about what preventive measures you will need to craft a fire safety plan at home.

Things become more complicated if you have an assistant working with you at home – and when its more than that, you may have certain other legal responsibilities as well. You would do well to check with fire safety regulations in your state. 

Plan a Safe Escape

Once you are done with your fire risk assessment, you have the information to make an evacuation plan in the unfortunate event of a fire. Make sure that this escape route is easily accessible whenever you need it, and that there is a clear path to it, without obstacles of any sort. 

It is also a good idea to have heat and smoke alarms throughout your home, and it would be a good idea to link them together. Test them once a week to make sure they are in perfect working condition. Fire Inspection is very important to ensure that your home and office are protected. If you forget to test them, and suppose there is a problem in any of them and they malfunction when a fire does take place, it could cost you in terms of property and people. It’s not worth taking that risk!

Additional Fire Safety Tips 

Most of the fire risks that are present in your usual workplace, are often present in your home too; in fact, you may find that there are more risks present at home. Ergo, it is essential that you follow these fire safety tips for your safety, and that of your teammates and family.

• It’s important to check all of your electrical equipment. Conduct a thorough examination and check if any wires are broken or loose, if there are any plugs with blackish marks, and so on. Get an electrician to check for any short circuits or loss of earthing.
• Make sure that you don’t load up your sockets. Use a spike board for safety if you need to plug in multiple devices in one plug point. Electric ignitions are unfortunately all too common, and mostly avoidable.
• If you light candles at home, make sure that you don’t keep them close to anything that can catch fire easily – any kind of cloth or paper, including curtains, sheets, mats, etc. Be sure to put them in holders, and at a safe distance from anything combustible.
• Check that all methods of egress – doors or windows are easily accessible. Keep your car keys in a place you can reach quickly and safely.
• If you or any of your team members need to smoke, be diligent about smoking outdoors, and safely stubbing out or disposing cigarettes. All it takes is a tiny ember to cause a fire like smoke detection systems.
• Try to have furniture made or covered with fire-retardant materials, especially your work chair.
• Install fire sprinkler system in the ceiling in your office space
• Make sure you have fire protection equipment on the premises; you can have a Co2 fire extinguisher, foam extinguisher, a fire blanket, a Lith-Ex fire extinguisher (ideal for laptop or Smartphone fires) or a water extinguisher, or a combination of any of these, or even all of them. After all, where safety is concerned, why take chances?

The fire protection system you need does depend on the specifics of the job. You are obviously going to have some amount of paper lying about, and some electrical equipment as well. This means you most likely need Class A and fire hydrants – this includes water extinguishers and CO2 extinguishers. This is especially true if you have a lot of equipment in your home office. Then again, most homes are equipped with circuit breakers, which means that in case a fire does break out, the power will be shut off, essentially choking the source of the fire. This means that you may need only a foam extinguisher, smaller in size.

As mentioned earlier, when you have equipment with lithium-ion batteries, it would be a good idea to have a Lith-Ex extinguisher on hand as well. About fire suppression in the kitchen, Fire blanket is a must have in your kitchen, especially as you’re going to be tempted to whip up some fries or pop in some nuggets in your pan of hot oil to quell those hunger pangs.

A full-fledged fire alarm system may not be necessary in your house, but as we mentioned earlier, smoke and heat alarms placed in strategic locations and connected to each other, would make a great early warning. Battery powered alarms are the easiest to install; when they are all interlinked, you can get warnings regardless of wherever you are in the house.

It must be said however, that you must talk to your insurance provider, and ask them if they have any requirements you need to take care of in the way of precautions and fire safety measures.

First Aid

You need to be prepared to provide first aid to any individual who receives burns, no matter how minor, in the event of a fire in your home. It is critical that you keep a first aid box at home with dressing, plasters, gloves, face shield, sterile wipes, band-aids, ointments, and medicines that can help you treat minor burns and injuries before help arrives or you take the injured person to the nearest healthcare center or hospital.

A fire can break out anywhere, at any time. Don’t wait for it to happen and then react. Make sure it doesn’t happen. At TAS Fire Protection we can conduct fire risk assessments, help you create evacuation plans, and supply the fire protection equipment you need.

Call us now for a free consultation

Contact Us (905-870-7779) for a Free Consultation!

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About TAS Fire Protection

TAS Fire Protection offers comprehensive and cutting-edge fire, security, and electrical services to clients with residential, commercial, industrial, or high-rise properties. Our team of highly skilled professionals has years of experience in installing, maintaining, and inspecting fire, security, and electrical systems and equipment.
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