Coronavirus Advice from Fire Alarm Companies

TF Installations are specialist commercial fire alarm system designers and installers that work with businesses across London and the South East of England.

However, while we work directly with commercial businesses, with the current advice for employers to enable their employees to work from home wherever possible, this has seen millions of support staff switching to working from home during the Coronavirus pandemic.

As a business owner, it is your duty to protect your staff from harm by installing and maintaining a good fire safety system. However, you should also have a duty of care to help keep your staff as safe as possible while working from home.

The most effective way to help protect your employees while they are currently working from home is to share some home fire safety tips with them. TFI are pleased to offer some tips that you can share with your staff to help raise their awareness over fire safety while working for you from home.

Stay home, stay safe advice for staff

Following Government advice to avoid all but essential travel in a bid to try and contain the spread of Covid-19, millions of business employees are now being asked to work from home wherever possible.

However, with the increasing numbers of working told to work from home, there is now a greater risk of more fires occurring at home as people start to adapt to their new daily working routine. It is very important to get the message over to your staff to keep themselves safe at home to avoid becoming another patient for the NHS to cope with.

An increase in emergency calls in 2020

In an average year, firefighters are usually called out to the majority of domestic fire emergencies between 6pm and 8pm in the evening during the week with higher numbers at weekends. In most cases the cause can be put down to cooking fires originating in the kitchen.

However, what the fire emergency figures are now showing is that during 2020, fire responders are now not only seeing an increase in calls overall, but also at much earlier times of the day, mostly because the number of people working from home has suddenly and exponentially increased.

House fires are on the increase, so firefighters are now warning everyone to be on their guard. The most common causes of fires in the home are coming from:

•         cooking
•         smoking
•         electrical items
•         heating sources

House fires are becoming more prevalent as increasing numbers of people are spending more time indoors than usual.

Basic fire safety tips in the home

Please advise your staff that are working from home that it is vial for them to pay attention to basic fire safety at home during these unprecedented times.

We all must do what we can to avoid fire emergencies and not to overload the NHS at this time while they are under such unimaginable pressure.

There are a number of simple things and basic checks that can be done at home. These include:

•       Test your smoke alarms to ensure they are working
•         Don’t get distracted while you are cooking meals at home
•         If you are a smoker and have a garden or a balcony, please smoke outside

Setting up a home office

As an employer, you may be be supplying the essential tools and equipment that your staff need to operate an office from home. While this is the right thing to do, this can also increase the risk of an electrical fire.

It would be helpful to advise your staff not to overload their home plug sockets. Most homes don’t have the same amount of electrical sockets that businesses use to cover their needs.

Make sure that you issue your staff with the appropriate chargers for laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Poor quality, cheap chargers can be a source for electrical fires.

Advise against setting up a ‘daisy chain’ of extension leads plugged together and running from a single electrical socket.

There are also risks from plug in heating devices such as fan heaters and room heaters that may be used to heat rooms that are little used.

Take advantage of your business downtime

Although this is a very stressful time for business owners, it is possible to take advantage of your empty workplace while your employees are away.

You can use this time to do a thorough inspection and test of your fire alarm system to make sure that everything is in working order before your employees return to work once the crisis is over.

TF Installations Ltd are here to assist you! As one of the leading fire alarm companies in the UK, we can help you with everything from conducting a fire risk assessment, fire alarm system design, fire alarm installation, testing and ongoing maintenance.

TF Installations Ltd can install, maintain and service the following systems:

•       Analogue Addressable Systems
•         Radio Fire Detection Systems
•         Conventional Fire Detection Systems
•         Voice Alarm Systems
•         EVACS (Emergency Voice Communication Systems)
•         Aspirating Systems
•         Emergency Assistance Systems
•         Graphical Packages

With our range of expertise we can ensure the best fire detection system for your property, whether it is a small retail store to a 500 bedroom hotel.

Do not hesitate to contact our expert team to discuss your needs. We are here to help you through this unprecedented time!