3 Useful Fire Safety Tips for Your Manufacturing Plant

Managing a manufacturing facility involves several complex processes. You have to find and train employees who will keep the plant running. Also, you’ll need to install the right equipment to execute various manufacturing processes. You even have to run quality checks on the final products to ensure that they meet the predefined standards.

Amidst the rigmarole, manufacturing plant managers often neglect the aspect of safety.

But it’s worth remembering that every workplace is vulnerable to a wide range of hazards resulting in accidents and casualties. Manufacturing facilities, in particular, are extremely susceptible to fire hazards due to faulty equipment and electrical wiring, staff negligence, or even improper hygiene standards.

The Impact of Fire Hazards in Manufacturing Plants

Needless to say, a fire hazard can severely damage expensive equipment and premises. Also, it could jeopardize the health and safety of your employees. You could even end up facing lawsuits and penalties due to non-compliance with local, state, and federal fire safety codes.

Such incidents can disrupt key business operations, and even take a toll on your revenue. Worse still, it could destroy your reputation and credibility as a manufacturer, and take months or years to recover the losses. What’s even more concerning is the recent spate of fire hazards in various industrial establishments.

A recent fire at a Premium PPE facility in Amherst took firefighters nearly a day to control the spread. Similarly, a fire was triggered by the spontaneous combustion of contaminated laundered materials at a Regina linen cleaning facility. While both incidents didn’t result in any casualties, the companies ended up with massive property damage.

Have you started breaking a sweat at the thought of such accidents happening at your manufacturing facility?

The silver lining is that preventing fire hazards at your workplace isn’t rocket science. Simple steps, such as regular cleaning of the premises and proper employee training, can help mitigate such incidents. Similarly, installing the right fire protection systems can minimize the damage caused by a fire hazard.

Let’s take a look at a few effective strategies manufacturing facilities can implement to ensure prevent fire hazards.

Prioritize Risk Assessment

Addressing fire safety concerns at a manufacturing plant involves various steps, such as deploying protection systems and developing an emergency response plan. But you shouldn’t get started with any of these steps before identifying the fire safety risks for your plant.

It’s a good idea to consult a fire safety expert who will inspect your premises and identify the potential risks. Common risks for manufacturing facilities include:

• Electrical hazards due to naked live wires and overloading of circuits
• Use of combustible gases and liquids in the manufacturing process
• Accumulation of dust on the equipment and floors
• Faulty or outdated equipment

Identifying the common risks will help you devise suitable mitigation strategies. Also, it’ll come in handy when you’re creating an evacuation plan.

Implement a Fire Protection System

In an ideal world, you’d deploy measures to prevent fire hazards and watch them work their magic. But if you have the real-life experience of managing a manufacturing facility, you’d know that accidents and hazards are commonplace. They often happen due to human errors and equipment malfunctioning.

So, if you don’t have the power to prevent an accident, the next best thing you can do is minimize its impact.

That involves purchasing and installing a robust fire protection system that goes beyond conventional fire extinguishers. Depending on the type of products you’re manufacturing, fire sprinkler systems may not always be the ideal solution.

In such cases, it’s wiser to consider a fixed suppression system. These systems are extremely effective in buying you enough time to evacuate employees during a fire. Also, unlike sprinklers, they don’t cause further damage to your tools, machinery, and premises.

Once you’ve installed fire protection equipment, make sure you regularly inspect and maintain it. For instance, suppression systems require constant monitoring of the gas level in cylinders. It’s a good idea to use an ultrasonic gas level checker and indicator, such as the ones manufactured by companies like Coltraco Ultrasonics.

These devices provide a hassle-free and non-invasive way of checking fluid levels in large gas cylinders. They’re designed to withstand rigorous use and even help you comply with NFPA standards.

Routine inspection and maintenance of fire protection equipment will be instrumental in helping you effectively deal with a workplace emergency.

Outline an Emergency Action Plan

When faced with an adverse emergency situation, the natural human instinct is to panic. But if your employees start panicking during an accident, it could result in a bigger catastrophe. That’s why you need to provide them with adequate training and prepare them to deal with fire hazards.

Start by creating an emergency action plan that defines the steps they should follow in the event of a fire. Define a chain of command so that they know whom to look up to during the incident. Also, it should include an emergency evacuation plan that outlines the nearest exits.

Once you’ve created the plan, the next step is to share it with your employees. Also, conduct regular fire safety and evacuation drills to get them more used to the plan.

Irrespective of the size and nature of your manufacturing facility, you should always be equipped to deal with fire hazards. Install and monitor a fire protection system. Also, leverage fire safety training to familiarize employees with your emergency evacuation plan.