Start Small to Prepare Your Winston-Salem Staff for Flames | SERVPRO® of West Forsyth County

3/28/2023 (Permalink)

A workplace crisis can take many forms, the most common of which is a chaotic fire emergency. Your trusted employees will be responsible for the safety of your entire business, and without proper training, they may not be prepared to fight back when flames appear.

Going over the basics of fire readiness is the best way to ensure your team responds adequately when calamity hits. Fire extinguisher training is a simple topic to begin with that can prepare your team to control flames before they spread throughout your commercial business.

Prepare your team for the unexpected by using our guide to conduct a comprehensive fire training in your Winston-Salem workplace.

<h2with-the-fundamentals">Start With the Fundamentals

OSHA mandates that any business that has fire extinguishers on-site supplies employees with the training needed to use them. This involves showing your staff the basic handling methods, informing them of hazards that will require an extinguisher and the many kinds available to use.

Begin by instructing your employees on how to correctly handle and aim the extinguisher. After they’ve gotten ahold of this, you can demonstrate how to pull the pin, press the handle and sweep over a blaze. Let your team know that they’ll need to keep six to eight feet away from flames anytime they operate an extinguisher.

The PASS method is a helpful tool that can allow your team to recall this information when needed. Running through this hands-on training yearly is another way to ensure even your most seasoned staff can recall this information when they need it most.

Assigning roles to experienced employees will help ensure this tool is used appropriately when a fire emergency breaks out in the workplace. Having a few members in charge of the extinguishers located throughout your building will allow for an orderly response with zero hesitation.

<h2s-a-time-and-a-place">There’s a Time and a Place

By educating your staff about the fire hazards that could arise, you can encourage the effective and timely use of fire extinguishers. Inform them of any distinctive scenarios or specific hazards that are common in your workplace, as well as the type of fire extinguisher required for each emergency. Using the wrong extinguisher in the middle of a fire will only add to the chaos and spread of the flames!

To ensure that every fire situation is handled carefully, inform your team that it is sometimes safer to back away rather than fight. Many fires can be put out with the help of a fire extinguisher, but others can quickly escalate and become impossible to handle on your own.

Let your team know that it is advisable to back away, evacuate the building and call for help when flames start to spread out of control

Starting small with hands-on fire extinguisher training can help you prepare your Winston-Salem business for the unexpected. Once you’ve covered the basics, you can move on to creating a detailed fire response strategy to ensure that your team has the necessary training and information to respond effectively to flames.

Dealing with the aftermath of a commercial fire? Our SERVPRO of West Forsyth County specialists can restore your losses and return your workplace to its pre-fire condition. Call us 24/7. 336-946-1131.