Fire Prevention Week Starts Today
Fire Prevention Week begins today, offering a timely opportunity to update training for your employees and their families on how to reduce the risk of one of the most common disasters. This key message of this year’s Fire Prevention Week is “Hear the beep where you sleep” underscoring the need to install smoke alarms in every bedroom. Smoke alarms save lives; having a working smoke alarm reduces by one-half your chances of dying in a fire. Having a working smoke alarm is especially critical between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. when nearly half of home fire deaths occur, as people are asleep. If yours is among the eight million home-based businesses in the U.S., the chances that a fire will damage your home office are reduced by having working smoke alarms in your home, particularly in your bedroom.
I came very close to learning about fire safety the hard way, when I rented a property with an option to purchase it. A pre-purchase home inspection revealed 49 pages of serious violations of housing code, including the absence of working fire and carbon monoxide detectors as required by state law. What made the findings even more alarming were the many other electrical fire hazards the inspector found and the fact that other units in the building are occupied by senior citizens. I invited city and state inspectors to my home, where I have my home office, and shared with them the home inspection report. They not only confirmed the findings, they made additional observations of their own and took measures to compel the landlord to bring the property up to code. The scary thing was that these fire hazards were completely invisible to me. And as I was working from a home office, I spent most of the 24 hours of the day being (unknowingly) exposed to these risks,
In addition to updating measures to protect your own workplace, home and employees, this week offers an opportunity for supporting your community. Fire Prevention Week takes place the first week of October to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2,000 acres. Many businesses will host events to support the efforts of their local fire departments to raise awareness of fire safety. And if you work in a multi-tenant facility, you might want to meet with your neighboring businesses to discuss fire safety measures or review drills together. The safety of your business is enhanced when your neighboring businesses are also taking measures to reduce fire risks.