Top Fire Safety Tips for Your Construction Site
New York construction accident lawyers see dozens of tragic accidents take place each day in New York. One of the worst types of incidents we see in the city is fires at construction sites. There are so many reasons that fires happen, but there are ways in which business owners and employees can help to prevent these. Today, we’re going to share some of our top fire safety tips for construction sites. We hope these will stop an incident from happening, but if you do have an issue in the future, always reach out to our team of New York construction accident lawyers. We’ll be happy to help you with any claims and ensure you receive the compensation you deserve after a fire.
Assign a Fire Safety Manager in Your Team
Either the site manager or someone else in your team needs to take on the responsibility of fire safety. This needs to be assigned to someone who is very familiar with the industry and fire safety practices. Site managers often take on this role, but it could be another senior member of staff. Make sure they are familiar with building safety regulations so that they can walk around the building and review everything that’s going on. Ensure this is someone who will know how to train other staff members, so you can pass on best practices within your team. You’ll find that they will then become a leader for fire safety and work to prevent any issues from happening which might need the help of a New York construction accident lawyer.
Install Fire Alarms
No construction site would be complete without fire alarms or smoke detectors. You’ll find that these can help to get everyone out of your site if an issue should occur. Make sure you test fire alarms regularly, as there’s no point in having them if they aren’t going to work. You would be surprised by the number of cases a New York construction accident lawyer has to deal with that involve a fire alarm that doesn’t work. Make sure everyone knows the route they need to take when the alarm goes off as well, as otherwise, you’ll find there are further issues within your workplace.
Fire Extinguishers
Fire extinguishers are the number one way to try and combat a fire if one does take place on your site. However, these also are only useful if you have team members who know when and how to use them. Make sure you test fire extinguishers regularly. Train new team members on how to use them, so no one is afraid to try and tackle a fire if one breaks out. You’ll find that so many people don’t know the difference between different types of extinguishers. If you have multiple different fire extinguishers, make sure you teach your team which one to use in various situations.
As a New York construction accident lawyer, we recommend you think very carefully about where you place extinguishers around your site. Put them everywhere you could potentially need them, and only leave them a few meters away from where a fire could break out. You don’t want your team to be panicking if a fire breaks out and they don’t know what to do with themselves.
Educate Your Site Workers
When a New York construction accident lawyer reviews what went wrong in an accident, one of the most common concerns is team members who have no idea what to do in a fire. This is often the fault of their boss, who hasn’t bothered to ensure their training is up to date. You need to make sure that all new employees are fully trained and confident in how to act during a fire. They should have full training from their first day on the site and shouldn’t start work until after that. Make sure that you offer team members the proper PPE they may need as well for the job so that you protect them from burns if a fire was to break out.
Fire safety is something any New York construction accident lawyer would encourage you to take more seriously in your workplace. So many of us take for granted the fire alarms we have, but this isn’t the only thing you need to have in place to save you during an emergency. Make sure you follow all of the top tips listed above, and you’ll have a greater chance of saving yourself and your employees in the future from the risks of fire. We encourage you to take your time training everyone in your team so that each person can take responsibility for an emergency. If you do find yourself involved in a fire, contact a New York construction accident lawyer in our team today, and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about receiving compensation.