Fire safety in care homes is critically important.
Please read below, 5 key areas you must do if you are responsible for fire safety in a care home.
Sadly, fire safety can be matter of life and death where there are vulnerable occupants concerned – such as the residents of care homes.
This was brought home in an elderly care facility fire in Hertfordshire which tragically claimed 2 lives (you can read more here).
More recently and in contrast, the Beechmere Care Home Fire in Crewe, Cheshire, which was extremely serious but having no casualties due to staff and emergency services implementing a successful evacuation plan of 150 residents / service users (you can read more here).
In the unfortunate event of a fire, it is far more difficult to get vulnerable residents out safely, such as the very young, the ill, those with learning difficulties or the very old.
This can be made even more difficult by staff shift patterns, especially at night when there tend to be fewer carers on the premises.
To help prevent another tragedy, the ‘5 Point Checklist’ below should assist those staff and managers who are responsible for fire safety in care homes.
You can use this ‘check-list’ to make sure that the 5 most important fire safety measures have been followed in your premises.
5 important things you must do – ‘5 Point Checklist’
Take a look at our quick checklist:
- Do you have an up-to-date fire risk assessment which has been thoroughly reviewed during the past 12 months?
- Do you have an ‘L1’ fire alarm system throughout the premises which is fully serviced and in working order?
- Do you have the right fire extinguishers in the right places?
- Do you have fully operational fire doors which are checked quarterly?
- Have all of your staff had evacuation training specifically for vulnerable residents?
If you have answered ‘no’ to any of the above questions on the above checklist, then it is most likely that your fire safety precautions are not sufficient for your care home.
In this case, please contact Fire Defence UK Ltd discuss any concerns you may have free of charge.
If you would like to find out more, please use the ‘contact us’ link provided and one of our experienced team will make contact with you, or alternatively, call / email us on the details provided at the top of our web page and we can discuss your query accordingly.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Fire Defence UK Ltd
‘The First Choice For Your Fire Risk Assessment And Fire Training Needs’