The Ultimate Guide to Fire Protection and Prevention for Facility Managers

A fire can ignite at the most unpre­dictable time and cause irre­versible dam­age to your facil­i­ty. In the worst-case sce­nario, a fire can take lives and dec­i­mate a facil­i­ty, but even a small fire can seri­ous­ly harm your busi­ness. It can dam­age your building’s struc­ture, facil­i­ty machin­ery, and equip­ment. Impor­tant doc­u­ments, like patient records and con­tracts, can go up instant­ly in smoke.

Employ­ees who expe­ri­ence a fire in the work­place may devel­op anx­i­ety, low morale and reduced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. If the gov­ern­ment deter­mines your facil­i­ty vio­lat­ed fire safe­ty rules, you will have to deal with legal reper­cus­sions and exten­sive fines.

A fire pro­tec­tion and pre­ven­tion pro­gram mit­i­gates fire risk and reduces poten­tial dam­age. Fire pro­tec­tion is designed to min­i­mize dam­age asso­ci­at­ed with fire and allows peo­ple in the facil­i­ty the widest pos­si­ble win­dow for evac­u­a­tion. In facil­i­ties, fire pro­tec­tion involves adding a com­bi­na­tion of active or pas­sive sys­tems designed to help fight fires, like sprin­kles and intu­mes­cent paint.

On the oth­er hand, fire pre­ven­tion pro­grams are imple­ment­ed to proac­tive­ly deter­mine and remove fire haz­ards. The goal is to reduce the like­li­hood of a seri­ous fire in the facil­i­ty. A pre­ven­tion plan iden­ti­fies points of igni­tion like elec­tri­cal sock­ets, sus­cep­ti­ble tools or machin­ery, and prop­er stor­age of com­bustible materials.

What Are the Key Ele­ments of Fire Prevention?

Fire breaks out when three ele­ments are present: an igni­tion source, fuel, and oxy­gen. Since oxy­gen will always be present, facil­i­ty man­agers must direct their focus on elim­i­nat­ing or pre­vent­ing igni­tion sources from com­ing into con­tact with fuel. Facil­i­ty man­agers should make it a point to car­ry out a fire safe­ty risk assess­ment and imple­ment nec­es­sary fire safe­ty measures. 

It’s also nec­es­sary to deter­mine ways to pro­tect peo­ple if a fire breaks out. Effec­tive strate­gies include imple­ment­ing warn­ing sys­tems, pro­vid­ing read­i­ly avail­able fire-fight­ing equip­ment, and ensur­ing escape routes and fire exits are eas­i­ly seen and accessed at all times. Train­ing employ­ees on prop­er pro­ce­dures will also pre­vent injuries and loss of life.

Iden­ti­fy Poten­tial Fire Haz­ards in Your Facility

The first step in cre­at­ing a fire pre­ven­tion and pro­tec­tion plan is to iden­ti­fy poten­tial fire haz­ards in a facil­i­ty. Here are some of the most com­mon fire haz­ards to look out for:

1. Flam­ma­ble Liq­uids and Gas 

Flam­ma­ble liq­uids have a flash point of less than 100 degrees Fahren­heit, such as paint thin­ner, gaso­line, and alco­hol. These sub­stances can eas­i­ly ignite in the pres­ence of elec­tri­cal sparks or open flames, as well as flam­ma­ble gasses or com­bustible vapors that ignite when in con­tact with flames, heat, and oth­er igni­tion sources. Exam­ples of these gasses are hydro­gen sul­fide, propane, and methane.

2. Faulty Elec­tri­cal Wiring and Equipment

Every facil­i­ty uses elec­tric­i­ty, which can also become a source of fire if not prop­er­ly main­tained. Some com­mon elec­tri­cal fire haz­ards are old, worn-out sock­ets, over­loaded cir­cuits, and dam­aged wiring. Mal­func­tion­ing or dusty equip­ment and appli­ances can also start a fire. Fire is like­ly to occur when light­ing fix­tures in a facil­i­ty emit exces­sive heat or elec­tri­cal tools and wires are placed near com­bustible materials.

3. Open Flame

Portable torch­es, can­dles, and oth­er open-flame devices are also poten­tial fire starters. For exam­ple, when you use torch­es in weld­ing or cut­ting mate­ri­als, sparks may land on a com­bustible sur­face and ignite into an open flame.

4. Com­bustible Dust

Some mate­ri­als com­mon­ly found in facil­i­ties burn quick­ly in a fine­ly divid­ed or dust form. These mate­ri­als include but are not lim­it­ed to starch, tobac­co, rub­ber, and even met­als. When com­bustible dust is sus­pend­ed in the air, it can become explo­sive under cer­tain con­di­tions and the right concentration.

5. Tobac­co Smoke

Smok­ing tobac­co isn’t only bad for health; it is a com­mon fire haz­ard not just in work­places but in res­i­den­tial dwellings as well. Just one tiny slip-up can cause an entire facil­i­ty to go up in flames.

By rec­og­niz­ing the pres­ence of fire haz­ards, it will be eas­i­er to deter­mine the appro­pri­ate steps to take. For exam­ple, you can post no-smok­ing signs in areas with eas­i­ly com­bustible materials.

Imple­ment a Fire Safe­ty Plan and Train Staff on Evac­u­a­tion Procedures

Despite tak­ing all pre­cau­tions and installing fire pro­tec­tion sys­tems, fire can still occur. Some sce­nar­ios are just out of your con­trol, like hav­ing some­one throw a cig­a­rette butt from a pass­ing vehi­cle. If the lit cig­a­rette lands on suit­able fuel, it can cre­ate an open flame with­in a few minutes.

A fire safe­ty plan can min­i­mize fire dam­age to a prop­er­ty. It’s a detailed doc­u­ment that cov­ers every­thing about fire safe­ty for a spe­cif­ic build­ing, includ­ing prop­er main­te­nance, ways to con­trol fire, occu­pant evac­u­a­tion pro­ce­dures, etc.

Make sure that when you cre­ate a fire safe­ty plan, every­one in the facil­i­ty is aware of it. Employ­ees should also be trained on what to do when there’s a fire. They should be aware of what the fire alarm sounds like in the build­ing, learn where to find and how to use fire extin­guish­ers, and famil­iar­ize them­selves with escape routes.

After cre­at­ing a fire evac­u­a­tion plan, the next cru­cial step is to put it into prac­tice. Con­duct fire drills regularly.

Install Sprin­kler Sys­tems, Fire Extin­guish­ers, Smoke Detec­tors, and Oth­er Fire Pro­tec­tion and Sup­pres­sion Systems

Smoke detec­tors, sprin­kler sys­tems, and fire extin­guish­ers are com­mon exam­ples of active fire pro­tec­tion sys­tems. These sys­tems are designed to detect, con­tain, or sup­press the fire. Some of these sys­tems, like the fire extin­guish­er, must be han­dled man­u­al­ly by a per­son to put out a fire. On the oth­er hand, sprin­klers and smoke detec­tors auto­mat­i­cal­ly take action when triggered.

Invest in Fire­proof­ing

For max­i­mum fire pro­tec­tion, invest in pas­sive fire pro­tec­tion (PFP) sys­tems. Pas­sive fire pro­tec­tion sys­tems are designed to delay or pre­vent fire from spread­ing. When com­bined with an active sys­tem, it can help put out a fire faster and min­i­mize fire damage.

PFP sys­tems are most­ly built right into the prop­er­ty. It may mean using fire stop­ping or fire­proof­ing mate­ri­als when con­struct­ing the walls, floors, and ceil­ing. You can also use intu­mes­cent paint. You usu­al­ly don’t see them, but these pas­sive sys­tems are avail­able to pro­tect your build­ing and peo­ple once a fire breaks out.

Per­form Reg­u­lar Main­te­nance on All Fire Pro­tec­tion Equipment

Your fire pro­tec­tion equip­ment can only pre­vent fire and save lives if they are in their best con­di­tion. Fire pro­tec­tion equip­ment gets dam­aged, so it is vital to check its func­tion­al­i­ty and per­form oth­er main­te­nance tasks reg­u­lar­ly. By Fire Code, you must ensure com­pli­ance to avoid penal­ties for fail­ing to meet inspec­tion standards.

Fire­proof Your Facil­i­ty Today

Don’t let fire put your facil­i­ty and team in dan­ger. Fire­proof your build­ing with the help of Kaloutas experts. We offer fire retar­dant, cemen­ti­tious, and intu­mes­cent paint coat­ings for man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties, hos­pi­tals, indus­tri­al spaces, and oth­er com­mer­cial prop­er­ties. Our team takes safe­ty seri­ous­ly at every lev­el. We’ll ensure the project you entrust­ed to our team adheres to indus­try stan­dards so your facil­i­ty stays com­pli­ant. And we always stay three steps ahead on projects with­out dis­rupt­ing your work.

In addi­tion to fire pro­tec­tion ser­vices, we also han­dle exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or paint­ing, indus­tri­al coat­ing, con­tain­ment, indus­tri­al floor­ing, and caulk­ing and sealants. So, if you need mul­ti­ple projects, there is no need to onboard sev­er­al dif­fer­ent teams. We can get it all done. Con­tact us today for more information.