How important is fire safety in hospitals?
While fire safety is important in any building or profession, the sheer number of people working in hospitals along with the vulnerability of patients residing there makes fire safety unquestionably more important in hospitals as compared to other workplaces.
Hospitals are very busy locations, full of electrical equipment, flammable materials, and many other fire hazards. According to the US Fire Administration, an estimated 5700 medical facility fires were reported each year from 2012 to 2014. Around one-fifth of these fires (1100) occurred in hospitals. These fires resulted in a number of casualties as well as property damages.
In this post, we’re going to discuss some important fire safety tips that every hospital administration department and worker must know of.
Safety Exits and Access to Exits
Make sure adequate exit doors, corridors, and emergency stairways are provide in a manner that people can readily access those exits. Any furniture or any other obstruction should not be present in these exit routes and they must be well-lit and labeled with clear exit signs. Emergency exit doors should be made of specialized hardware that allows users to merely push the door and quickly open it.
Restricting the use of Extension Cords
The use of extension cords should be avoided as much as possible. They should never be allowed to run through windows, doors, ceilings, walls, under carpeting or rugs. All electrical cords must be regularly inspected and serviced and there should be strict rules against overloading electrical circuits.
In case a cord from an appliance is not able to reach a power outlet, a permanent outlet should be made available whenever possible. All such electrical work should be performed by certified and licensed electricians.
Limiting Multi-Plug Adapters
Only approved multi-plug adapters should be allowed to use in the hospital facility. These adapters should be equipped with over-current protection.
Multi-plug adapters are designed to allow more than one plug to be plugged into a single outlet. Only approved multi-plug adapters with over-current protection may be used. Relocatable power taps need to be connected directly to a permanently installed power outlet.
Installation and Maintenance of Fire Alarm System
Installing a fire alarm system is one of the most important requirements for maintaining hospital safety. These systems should be annually maintained, inspected and tested by certified fire alarm technicians as per the guidelines of the National Fire Prevention Association. There should be a visual inspection of manual pull systems bi-annually.
Staff Training on Fire Safety and Prevention
While automatic sprinklers and fire extinguishers are very important, hospitals also have to install portable fire extinguishers and train all staff on how to inspect and operate them. Both manual and automatic fire extinguishing systems should be periodically inspected, tested and maintained and staff should be able to detect and report any issue they observe in them.
To Sum Up
Fire safety and prevention is of immense importance in a hospital setting since so many lives are at stake. In case a fire incident has occurred at your facility, you should get immediate help from an experienced fire restoration service that can help return the facility to its pre-loss condition as soon as possible.
Please visit our website to get detailed information on our fire restoration services.
