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The importance of fire drills in industries and commercial establishments

The importance of fire drills in industries and commercial establishments

Tuesday May 02, 2017,

3 min Read

Although fire drills are vital for practicing fire safety at the workplace, a lot of people also view it as a disruption as it causes a complete halt of daily operations for a few minutes. Such people often overlook the underlying value of fire drills, and this is the reason why they judge it wrongly. Had they known that fire drills are no less important than fire extinguishers and elaborate fire fighting systems, they would have changed their attitude towards it.

In most cases, experts carry out fire drills despite protestation from office staff, but this is very much required in their interest only. Fire drills prepare you to meet eventualities so that you are at your very best in protecting life and property when the need arises. Let us see why it is not an inconvenience and why you should give it the due importance.

Fire drills explained

For those who are not acquainted with fire drills, it needs some introduction. These are elaborate exercises that cover all people who are likely to face the situation of fire at the workplace. A hypothetical situation of fire and emergency is created to simulate the emergency procedures that must be followed at that time. Teaching people how they should behave in case of fire and how they can find their way out from the scene of a disaster is the fundamental purpose of the fire drill. It gives an opportunity to use control the chaos and manage the situation until help arrives.

Enacting the evacuation plan

The evacuation plan is given life during fire drills by showing people how they can make the best use of the plan so that they can safely get out of the troubled area. The practice ensures that everyone who is affected by the fire is well trained to act with a calm mind and in a methodical way without adding to the chaos. The drill focuses on the role of emergency handling staff in helping others to stay disciplined during the crisis so that they do not panic. Redtruckfireco is a company that manufactures fire extinguishers and undertakes special programs to educate people in handling fire more efficiently.

Testing the plan in reality

It is mandatory to have an emergency evacuation plan in place, but it is perhaps more important to evaluate how effective it will be in times of crisis. Fire drills provide the right opportunity to verify the work ability of the evacuation plan. Unless you know how it will turn out when applied, you can never be confident about implementing it. It gives you the opportunity to identify flaws and take corrective actions so that nothing is left to chance. How people would actually behave in crisis can be gauged from this exercise, and changes can occur if the practice is found to be flouting the norms of firefighting.

The lessons of the fire drill can be valuable for putting a foolproof firefighting and emergency evacuation plan in place. Regular fire drills ensure that the system works well all the time and people are confident about using it.

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