You can feel very accomplished as a business owner after having life-saving fire protection and safety equipment installed on your premises.
Fire alarms, fire hoses, fire suppression systems, they can all work wonders in alerting building occupants to fire and preventing severe damage and loss of life.
However, as important as installing such equipment is, it’s just as essential to maintain it. Otherwise, you run the risk of not having it function as it should when you need it the most.
Fire Alarm Servicing
Fire alarms are designed to alert people to the possible presence of a fire. The earlier they go off, the more time the building’s occupants have to vacate the premises.
They are a legal requirement, but not all business owners think about their maintenance once they are installed.
Surprisingly, fire alarms do have faults that can require regular servicing to look for and rectify. For example, a power failure may require it to be reset, or water might damage the circuits.
Regular checks may just prevent such issues from being why your team wasn’t alerted to a fire.
Fire Doors
Fire doors are designed to contain fires in select parts of a building. They can’t hold fire permanently, but they can slow down the fire’s spread to allow more time for people to get out.
Doors may not seem like something you need to maintain, but they are.
Common problems with fire doors include missing seals, incorrectly fitted hinges, and jamming. Have experts in servicing and maintenance check your entries to make sure they are in sound working order.
Fire Suppression Systems
Fire suppression systems rely on rising temperatures in a room to rupture their trace tubes so that they can attempt to put a fire out.
Even though they are not high-risk fire safety equipment for faults, it doesn’t mean they don’t require maintenance.
Sometimes, the suppressant needs to be topped up, or parts are damaged and require repair or replacement
Emergency Lighting
Sometimes, power can be cut to a building when a fire breaks out. If people are still inside the building, they may require an additional lighting source to get out. Some buildings have emergency lighting, which is powered by batteries.
Regular maintenance is imperative for making sure the batteries are fully charged and in working order.
Fire Extinguishers
There is more than one type of fire extinguisher, and not all of them will be suitable for your workplace. You have to choose one that’s suitable for electrical fires, solids fires, and flammable liquids.
Besides making sure you have the correct fire extinguisher, you also have to make sure it’s in working order.
If they have been sitting around without use for several years, they may be weakened or rusty.
Regular servicing can make sure they are always in sound working order, should you ever need to use one.
Sprinkler Systems
When in-building sprinkler systems detect a fire’s heat, they set off in the areas where that heat is noticeable. Sometimes, if they sit for years without being used, rust can cause faults.
Occasionally, water can also freeze in them and cause the pipes to burst. Maintenance may keep these life-saving systems in good working order.
Even though you may never be able to prevent faults from occurring in all fire safety equipment, you can undoubtedly reduce the risk. Regular servicing of your business’s fire safety equipment is one small job but could make a massive difference.
