While ensuring fire safety at workplace, you should not ignore the kitchen. Still, the kitchen or cooking area is where slightly more than one-fifth of workplace fires start, according to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). The primary source of office fires, accounting for 29% of all fires, is kitchen equipment.
Despite their modest beginnings, these fires seriously damaged many buildings. How do you keep your workplace from becoming the scene of a cooking fire? How can you simultaneously ensure the safety and well-being of your staff? To get you started, consider these four crucial safeties advice:
1. Change out damaged or frayed power wires
Examine the kitchen appliances’ power wires. Are the cables visible? If that’s the case, the cable may short out and catch fire. Urge your staff to look out for any damaged wires. Make sure you swap them out as soon as you locate them. The workplace will remain secure with just one little action.
2. Observe food as it cooks
It is easy to become sidetracked at work when colleagues are chatting or juggling too many tasks at once. Food shouldn’t be left unattended at the workplace, just as you wouldn’t do it at home. Stress that workers must remain close to equipment while heating or cooking food or beverages in order to guarantee that food cooks correctly. Workers who use the kitchen should also be on the lookout for burns or smoke. By doing this, the building’s overall safety will be guaranteed.
3. Consistently clean your appliances
Everybody has been there. When we put a (insert food item) in the toaster, oven, microwave, etc., it bursts or spills. But we tend to put off cleaning because we assume someone else will take care of it. Fires may be started by spills and items that have been baked in. Grease buildup may be avoided by cleaning kitchen appliances after use, which will stop combustion. It is simple to prevent these risks, therefore encourage staff members to clean up spills, food remnants, etc.
4. Provide staff with fire extinguisher training
Accidents happen no matter how careful you and your staff are. The ability of personnel to operate firefighting apparatus properly might be the difference between a serious event and a minor one. Teach your staff how to utilize first aid supplies, fire extinguishers, and other potentially life-saving safety precautions.
It is important to teach staff members about office kitchen fire safety since the majority of workplace fires originate in the kitchen. These are not just office-based practices; your staff members may implement them at home as well.