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How To Arrange A Fire training Course
Fire Training Course
Ensuring that all your staff are properly trained in what to do in an emergency is a legal duty for all Employers and managers. This means oganising some form of regular fire training course to cover all the various safety issues that your staff need to be aware of. Under the Fire Safety Order in the UK all businesses have a duty to make sure staff are aware of their role in an emergency situation, including a fire evacuation.
Your starting point should be with your fire risk assessment, which all UK businesses have to carry out, as this will lead directly to the nature of the fire training courses that you will need to run. You must also have an emergency plan in place before you set up a fire training course. All staff have to be told the findings of your fire risk assessment and all staff need to know the emergency plan and understand their role in the event of a fire or evacuation.
All staff in any workplace environment need to know certain information about fire safety. This includes things like the contents of your emergency plan, where the evacuation assembly point is for your premises and the importance of basic safety rules such as keeping emergency exit routes clear from obstructions at all times.
There are other staff who will need more detailed or specific training because they have a role or responsibility that requires a deeper knowledge in certain areas. An example of this is fire marshals, who may have certain duties as part of your fire prevention measures, or a particular role in an evacuation.
How you arrange these fire training courses is entirely up to you, but it sometimes pays to bring in professionals, particularly if you have not given your staff any structured safety training before. Even if you plan to do training in house in future, it is often best to use a fire consultant to get you off on the right track. Consultants are often ex fire service personnel so you really do get the benefit of years of experience.
Fire Training Course – Fire Warden/Marshal Courses
You will probably want to set up a separate fire training course for your fire wardens, so that they can be given more specific and in depth knowledge in relevant areas. Examples of the type of thing that specialist fire training courses for these staff might include are instruction and practice in the operation of fire fighting equipment, a more detailed understanding of the whole layout of the workplace, information about specific measures to be followed with regard to evacuating disabled people, or responsibilities relating to contractors or other visitors within the premises.
Fire Training Course – Practice Evacuations
An essential part of any fire training is carrying out fire drills or practice evacuations. These are important in highlighting any weaknesses or issues with your emergency plan. A plan can look great on paper, but it is not until you put in into practice that all the little issues you had not thought of come to light.
Whether you use a fire consultant to help you with these are not will depend on your particular circumstances. One of the main reasons consultants are used is a lack of resource to undertake the increasingly onerous duties in-house. Many companies use consultants to handle all their fire safety needs from writing plans and policies to staff training and practice drills and the supply and maintenance of emergency equipment and fire fighting appliances.
It is important to have practice drills on a fairly regular basis, but surprise drills will be far more telling in terms of finding out how staff react and whether they really do understand their roles in an emergency. If you do carry out drills using the fire alarm system, remember to inform the alarm monitoring company beforehand if you are using a monitored system.
Try to simulate some of the possibilities that a real emergency might throw up. For example, make one of the more obvious exit routes inaccessible so that people have to use alternative ways out of the building.
Fire Training Course – Recommended Trainers
There are many fire safety professional operating in the UK now and most of them will offer fire training courses. These can often be carried out on your premises and tailored to the specific needs of your premises and staff.
Local fire authorities used to offer a certain amount of help, but their role has changed under the new legislation and the only option for proper fire training now is to use consultants. You can find some recommendations for some of the best professionals on the main Fire Consultants page of this site.
