Best Security Products blog

Austin Community College has created a video guide that explains proper procedure for evacuating a building during a fire emergency.

Click the video to watch the whole thing. Here are some tips from the video. These tips are shared by Douglas Garret from Austin Community College:

The video shows a worker dropping her sweater near a space heater and then leaving the room. Someone sees the smoke from the burning sweater and then pulls the manual fire alarm. As the alarm sounds, two other workers discuss whether they should leave the building or not. But it is important to always leave the building when an alarm sounds.

• Do not hesitate to pull the fire alarm if you notice a fire.
• Leave the building at the closest, safe exit anytime you hear the fire alarm.
• Never take the elevator; instead, use the stairs to get to lower floors. Firefighters are the only ones who should use the elevators during a fire emergency.
• Be sure to stay calm and orderly when moving toward the exits and leaving the building. This helps the building evacuation to go more smoothly.
• Those who need help exiting the building should wait in a designated area reserved for those who need rescue assistance. If you need help getting out, be sure you alert someone to your location inside the building. Or you can ask others to report your location for you. When the fire department arrives, they will make rescue their first priority.
• It is important to make sure you are familiar with the locations of exits in your building as well as the areas for rescue assistance.
• After you get outside, walk to the rally point – that designated area to wait after evacuating the building. Do not leave, because it is important that everyone be accounted for. If you know of anyone missing or hurt, report it to the authorities.

Click here to watch the entire video from Austin Community College.

At Best Security Products, we can help you with all commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 or send us an email at sales@bestsecurityproducts.com

How well is your office or business protected from fire? Do you have working smoke detectors, heat detectors and alarm systems in place, so that even the smallest fire will be detected? What about a fire after hours? If a fire occurs overnight at your business, how quickly would you and the authorities be notified?

The BRE Group has published a video that demonstrates how an overnight office fire progresses when no one has been alerted to its presence. You can click the video to watch the whole thing, but we’ve included screenshots to show the progression of the fire.

The fire begins in a corner…

And within 3 and minutes the fire has ignited much of the room:

How do office fires like this start? According to this article, some of the most common causes of office fire include Faulty Electrics (overloaded plugs, loose wires and old equipment), Flammable Combustible Materials (when there are handled or stored incorrectly they present a fire hazard), Human Error (kitchen accidents or mishandling of flammable or combustible substances), General Negligence (not following procedures and precautions or by engaging in activities that are considered fire hazards), and Arson.

You can take steps to protect your business from being devastated by an office fire like the one above, and at Best Security Products, we can help you.

The first step is to assess your current fire protection and what is needed to upgrade your system to provide the coverage and peace of mind that you need. Smoke detectors, heat detectors, addressable fire systems, and monitored alarms are just a few of the options we will explore while customizing a business fire system for your business.

We will work with you to determine exactly what you need and what you do not need, so you are adequately protected without paying for components that are unnecessary.

We will take care of all your commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com

Often the first clue that a fire has started in a building is the sound of fire alarms or smoke detectors. These alarms give occupants precious minutes to get to safety before the danger of smoke inhalation, flashover or spreading fire become life threatening. Minutes matter in a fire emergency, and that is why it is important to have working fire alarms in all workplaces.

But what if the fire alarms are ignored? The only way fire alarms can save lives is if the alarms are taken seriously. If the fire alarms are dismissed, lives can be lost.

An interesting study performed by iHasco found that in a group setting, people are likely to ignore fire alarms unless someone specifically comes in and tells them to exit the building. In this study, participants did not know they were being studied to determine their reaction to a fire alarm; they thought the study was for something else.

While they were filling out paperwork, a fire alarm sounded and the group ignored the alarm, outside of a little chatter about the alarm. Below is a screenshot from the video by iHasco. The participants you see are hearing the fire alarm, but ignoring it.

(Click the video to view the clip.)

It is not until 2 minutes into the fire alarm that one of the participants gets up to find out what is happening.

In a real emergency, 2 minutes could mean the difference between life and death.

To create a safer work environment for your business, discuss this study with your employees, tenants, etc. Be sure they understand the importance of responding quickly to fire alarms. While there are many false alarms that happen, it is better to be inconvenienced by checking on an alarm that is false than waiting too late to respond to a fire alarm that is signaling a true emergency.

At Best Security Products, we can help you with all commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com