You’re in the process of setting up your first proper office for your business. It could be that you spent many years working remotely as a team, but now you’ve grown to the point where an office makes sense. Or, this could literally be the first phase of your startup – it doesn’t really matter; what matters is that you understand some of the key considerations when setting up an office for the first time.
Most of you will busy your minds with thoughts about office layout, equipment, etc. But that doesn’t mean you can afford to neglect the important stuff – like fire safety. Every office building needs to follow the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 or risk being shut down. All it takes is one safety inspection to ruin your business’s transition to a proper office or stop a startup in its tracks.
With that in mind, what are some key things to know about fire safety in your office?
You still hold a lot of responsibility
If you rent your office space, you may assume that your landlord/building owner is responsible for fire safety. That’s only half true. They’re responsible for the building itself and ensuring that it is structurally fire-safe. They may also be in charge of fire alarm systems, but only if the entire building shares the same system.
On the other hand, the business owner who rents the office space still has to be in charge of everything related to fire safety within their office. This includes:
- Creating safe fire escape routes
- Ensuring equipment is arranged and installed without presenting major fire risks
- Purchasing and maintaining any fire safety equipment
Consequently, you need to handle all of these fire safety things before your first week in business in this new office to avoid violating the regulations.
You must carry out fire risk assessments
Before entering your office and working, you must carry out a full-scale fire risk assessment that looks at any potential fire safety risks. It’s a crucial aspect of keeping the office safe – and it may throw up some common concerns, like a lack of fire protection within the office.
What this means is that there isn’t much in place to stop a fire from spreading. As a result, you’ll have to contact the landlord to install fire doors or fire curtains – and possibly a sprinkler system, depending on what’s in your office.
These risk assessments should be conducted periodically to prove that your office remains fire-safe.
You need to train all of your staff
Put simply, anyone who works in your office should be trained in basic fire safety. This doesn’t mean they should be fire marshals, but rather they must learn how to:
- Find and follow the nearest fire escape route
- Learn basic procedures in case of a fire
- Understand how to raise a fire alarm if it doesn’t come on automatically
Make this a core part of your training regimes before moving into the office so everyone can work safely.
Fire safety isn’t the first thought on your mind when setting up your first office, but it should be up there. It’s one of those things you assume someone else takes care of, yet you’ve still got a lot to consider before moving in.
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