What Should Be Inspected During Annual Fire Safety Inspections
Fires happen at an alarming rate, with the official figures only further emphasizing just how important it actually is for businesses to have strict fire prevention and safety measures in place. Such measures have been embraced by Canada, the United States and many other countries all over the world, because there is no safer way to deal with fire than to prevent one from happening in the first place.
To this end, fire departments conduct annual inspections of buildings in order to ensure they are in compliance with current legal standards in regards to fire safety and to assess and mitigate any potential fire hazards in such properties. The way in which such inspections are performed by fire inspector can however be different depending on the area, which only makes it all the more important for businesses to ensure that all areas of inspection are up to code.
What will be checked?
Things that fire inspectors are likely to check during annual fire safety inspections include the likes of the condition of equipment pertaining to fire safety such as emergency lighting, fire alarms and sprinkler systems.
Other things that should be inspected during annual fire safety inspections include fire hazards, potential access for fire fighters in the event a fire does break out on the premises and any life safety issues.
Fire extinguishers
Many facilities run into trouble during annual fire inspections due to the condition of their fire extinguishers, which may be inoperable, placed in positions that are hard to see or find, or which may simply not be present in enough quantity.
It is vital that all fire extinguishers on the premises be hung in the correct position and that there are enough extinguishers to comply with the fire safety code requirement. A lot of businesses actually fail to realise that their fire extinguishers have to be inspected and tagged on an annual basis, but if a well trained Fire Protection Company such as All Protect Systems performs this service, then this aspect of the annual fire inspection should be passed with no problems.
Emergency lighting
Another thing that should be inspected during an annual fire safety inspection is the state of the emergency lighting on the premises. If a building is plunged into darkness during any kind of emergency situation, and the emergency lighting fails to switch on when it is supposed to do so, the result can be panic that will make the situation even more perilous for everyone inside.
Thus an inspection of the emergency lighting in a building should be carried out on an annual basis, usually at the same time as the annual inspection of the fire extinguishers.
Sprinkler systems
An annual fire safety inspection should also see an inspection carried out on the sprinkler system of a building, in addition to an internal inspection that should take place every five years. A Fire Protection Company such as All Protect Systems will be able to advise your company’s maintenance crew on the minimum requirements that your sprinkler system must be able to meet in order to pass an annual fire safety inspection.
Easy access
An annual fire inspection will inevitably check to make sure that all exit doors are easy to open from within the building, as seconds can mean live lost or saved during an emergency situation such as a fire. It is imperative than an exit door does not need a key or access code to be opened, and that it is not blocked in any way.
The same issue with obstructions also applies to the likes of aisles, pathways, stairways and walkways, all of which must be clear and the blocking of any emergency egress in any way will result in automatic failure of an annual fire inspection.
Talk to All Protect Systems today in order to ensure your building is in compliance of fire safety codes and will pass an annual fire safety inspection.
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