Every business should have a fire maintenance plan. This should include all equipment associated with fire safety. Within the plan, it should state when the equipment is maintained, and this should be recorded in the plan too. Your fire maintenance plan should also include smoke detectors, fire alarm systems, fire extinguishers, safety doors, emergency lighting and more. Everything within your business that relates to fire safety needs to be included in the fire maintenance plan.
A good fire maintenance plan with list what checks, inspections and maintenance should be undertaken. It should also state how often these checks and inspections should take place and when, for example daily, weekly, annually, etc.
Each fire safety asset within your business will have its own maintenance requirements, all of these should be checked, and all inspections should be recorded in your fire maintenance plan.
Fire alarms should be tested weekly and documented in the fire log book. We recommend these tests occur at the same time on the same day each week. This way a routine is set up and those in the building are familiar with the routine safety testing of the fire alarms. Further to this your fire alarms should be checked by a fire safety professional every six months.
Meanwhile, emergency lighting should be regularly tested and maintained. Daily visual checks should be completed to ensure that the emergency lighting within the building is working correctly.
Fire extinguishers should be checked by a responsible person once a month. This check should be a brief examination to ensure there is no damage or loss of pressure, the pressure gauge, headcap pin and seal should be checked too. On top of this, your fire extinguishers should be checked annually by a professional. Every 5 years your fire extinguishers should be replaced.
We recommend that you also include checks of the visual display of your control panels, the batteries and the break-glass points within your fire maintenance plan. These checks should be part of the bi-annual inspection or regularly checked by your chosen responsible person.
Do you know when your checks and inspections were last completed by a professional? If you are not sure when checks were last completed or your due your next inspection; give our professional fire safety specialists a call.
