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Posted By A Dawson
Hi,
I have been looking into fire extinguisher training and ruled out practical training due to staff turnover etc and the geopgraphical spread of the sites. The problem being though is that I read on a fire brigade website that in Article 13 of the RRO it places a specific requirement on employers to ensure nominated people are trained in the use of extinguishers. For my organisation it is really quite impractical to do this. Is this right though as I am going to have a shed load of thinking to do to sort this out.
Any clarification would be appreciated
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Posted By shaun mckeever
Except in exceptional circumstances you are required to provide portable firefighting equipment. The words in legislation actually says 'where necessary'. It is unlikely that in any workplace that it would be considered unnecessary. So if you have portable fire extinguishers then you are required to have people trained to use them. This does not mean everybody (although I recommend that it should) but a reasonable proportion of the workforce. I can't recall the details but I am fairly sure this has been tested in court.
Although trained there is no requirement on the trained person(s) to actually tackle a fire.
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Posted By A Dawson
Hi
Thank you for the clarification I had a feeling it was going to be that but needed to make sure before I start proposing solutions to management.
Thanks again.
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Posted By J Knight
We train people to use them and then advise them not to: sheesh, I can't really believe we do this, but we do,
John
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Posted By geecee
There has to be an element of risk assessment. Reasonable awareness of how to use an extinguisher is expected even in simple low-risk premises whereas in a hazardous operations area with flammables it would be assumed that all staff would need knowledge of application and use of extinguishers.
Extinguishers are there for immediate personal safety & to support effort to avoid escalation of fire but all of this is judgmental as exposure to fire will be very limited in most cases and it is very difficult to train a incident reaction into people without adding to risk (we do not want have-a-go heroes).
Also it is impossible to expect all employees to use extinguishers e.g. mobility and effort required or extreme hazard area. Where risks are too high insurance usually dictates fixed systems but obviously extinguishers still have a role.
To sum up it is usually prudent to arrange some training to prove that appropriate precautions are in place. I usually ask fire extinguisher companies to provide basic instruction and some will even allow limited discharge if the premises are suitable to get a 'feel' of the appliances. Where required go for formal fire warden or in-house programmes - though as expressed earlier empowerment of all staff is my preference.
Regards.
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Posted By Cathy Ricketts
We train nominated fire wardens in each office and ensure that these cover each others holiday/leave periods. It is not practical for us to train everyone and the fire service seem perfectly happy for us to take this approach. We also make our fire wardens responsible for carrying out the weekly alarm and monthly emergency lighting test and then pay them an honorarium the same as the first aiders. They also assist in ensuring evacuation in the case of drills or act as "the fire" when we want people to use their heads and consider alternative evacuation routes.
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Posted By Steve Cartwright
You could start by giving them a visual demonstration. i.e. pull the pin, point the nozel, squeeze the handle. You don't have to set one off.
All fire extinguishers come with operating instructions printed on them. There quite simple to follow. The information on them also tells you what type of fires they are used for.
You can also get hold of some dvd's which actually go through the whole process of setting one off.
That should be enough.
Steve
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Posted By shaun mckeever
I have two concerns with some of the above staements.
1. Why tell your staff not to use an extinguisher after having trained them to do so?
I have said many times on this forum that there has to be a degree of common sense. Would you really tell your staff to walk away from a flickering flame no bigger than a candle? No.
Would you tell your staff to walk away from a large fire, say the size of an armchair? Yes.
Then somewhere between the two there must come a point where you would reasonably expect your staff to extinguish the fire and a point when you would expect them to walk away. You must train your staff to recognise the point that they should walk away, not to give a 'carte blanche walk away from any fire' instruction. This only places others at unnecessary risk e.g. firefighters. You owe them a duty of care too.
2. Train fire wardens in use of fire extinguishers. Why?
If fire wardens are to be doing their job properly then they won't be tackling the fire they will be encouraging people to leave and checking rooms, spaces etc to ensure the building is clear. They will then be reporting the status of the building to a senior fire marshal and providing information to the fire service. No time for fighting fires. This should be the responsibility of others.
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