Lesson 4: Fire Safety

A major problem that faces every company is the role of fire and safety officer. Depending on the size and organization of a company, the fire prevention task might be a separate operation or combined with security.

Any company must provide a system of fire prevention and control through the use of efficient fire protection services and equipment, implementation of effective fire drills, use of appropriate fires safety codes, and regular monitoring to ensure the safety of employees, customers, and the public. This system should include the following:

• An adequate fire protection service.

• Fire inspections and testing of equipment at least once each quarter by local or state fire officials or other persons qualified to perform fire inspections.

• An annual inspection by qualified outside fire inspectors.

• Placement of adequate fire protection equipment throughout the facility.

• Use of an automatic fire alarm system, certified effective by an independent outside source. The system must be designed to provide early warning of the presence of fire or smoke.

• A written facility wide fire evacuation plan. The plan should include the following:

1. Floor plan layout

2. Location of exists and escape routes

3. location of the fire plan

4. Quarterly fire drills, including the total evacuation of all persons from and area

5. Special procedure drills for the evacuation and control of special areas

6. Plans and procedures for the immediate releases of access controls to locked areas

7. Plans to provide security during the fire evacuation process

Fire drills are practice sessions designed to teach participants the best means of escape in case of fire. The most difficult areas for proper fire drill procedures are laboratory facilities and those areas where highly classified or restricted information is kept. Drills for these areas, though especially important, must be conducted carefully and with adequate security supervision.

Fire prevention is the most aspect of and effective fire protection program. All employees, especially security officers, should be constantly o the look out for fire hazards such as altered electrical outlets, overloaded electrical units, out-of-date or expended fire extinguishers, and improper trash storage. A facility fire not only can cause the company or institution tremendous financial losses, but also can threaten lives when the fire occurs in occupied shop or office space.

All employees should be attentive to maintaining good housekeeping standards to augment fire safety, including:

• Proper storage of combustible material

• Prevention of hazardous electrical situations

• Training for employees in fire safety procedures

• Fire drills

• Fire hazards reported to security

• Fire control equipment checked regularly

Following the annual inspection and report of the state fire prevention inspector, every effort should be made to correct all deficiencies noted n the report. When corrections are complete, the security department should notify the state fire prevention inspector, who will re-inspect the facility.

Fire fighting equipment available within the company or institution should consist of:

• Fire extinguishers located in the work areas, public areas, offices, lounges, kitchens, and all dining rooms.

• Sprinkler systems located in all units.

• Fire alert systems consisting of a dual chamber, ionization type detector designed to sense both visible and invisible products of combustion. These units are located in all patient wards, offices, public areas, and other congested areas.

• Stand pipes for fire hydrants (local area supervisors should list specific locations for security).

• Fire extinguishers (local area supervisors should list specific locations for security).

• Carbon dioxide extinguishers (local are supervisors should list specific).

Fire drills should be conducted at the direction of the security department or the designated fire and safety officer as follows:

1. Drills should be conducted at least once each quarter, and cover all areas of the company on a rotating basis so as to hit each area once annually.

2. The security department should schedule the drills and notify the local fire department and the fire and safety officer if the scheduling. Prior notification of the drill should be limited so as to increase drill effectiveness.

3. The security supervisor and the designated fire and safety officer should monitor drill operation.

4. The drill should begin when the "mock fire" location is established and be considered complete when all personnel assigned to the location are evacuated and the first fire apparatus arrives at the scene.

5. Security officers should be positioned at vehicle and pedestrian entrances and in the parking lots to offer radio accessibility and assistance to the local fire department.

6. Traffic through all entrances should be cleared immediately to facilitate fire apparatus access.

7. When the designated areas are cleared, immediately following the drill, a count of customers, visitors, and employees should be considered to determine accountability. The drill should not be considered complete until all customers, visitors, and staff signed into or assigned to the specific areas are identified and accounted for.

The preventive maintenance inspection schedule should contain the following information:

1. Type and frequency of the inspection schedule

2. Identification numbers of the facilities or equipment listed in the order of inspections

3. Location of the equipment

4. Description of the equipment, including make, model, and serial number

5. Checklist numbers or codes that apply to each facility or item of equipment

6. Standard time for servicing or inspecting each facility or item of equipment

The preventive maintenance inspection checklist should:

1. Contain a description of the servicing, checks, or adjustments that must be performed during the inspections.

2. Be based on manufacturers’ service manuals and other local factors.

3. Be developed and promulgated as various types of equipment and systems become available.

Every corporate or institutional facility requires proper maintenance procedures for all its equipment and property. The security department staff is always on the grounds and should be trained to be alert for maintenance and environmental safety matters. To accomplish this, the security department should:

• Create preventive maintenance routines for critical items of building systems and equipment to minimize out-of-service time due to failures as well as reduce costly breakdown repairs that can create security and safety problems.

• Detect maintenance deficiencies in their early stages of development and take prompt corrective actions.

• Plan and schedule resulting maintenance work to provide a reasonably controlled workflow, thus enabling better use of labor and materials.

• Detect and reduce over maintenance and identify problem areas.

Fire and safety are seen as tasks that are universal to all corporate and institutional activities, but they have been somewhat artificially separated from the similar goals of security and loss prevention. Since the liability for inadequate safety or inadequate fire prevention is such a prevalent issue, it behooves the security provider to do as much as possible to help provide these services as well.