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Day Care Fire Safety

When planning to open a day care facility fire safety is a major concern. You are ultimately responsible for the safety of every individual who enters your premises, staff, children, parents and visitors. It is therefore essential that you have in place a fire safety management policy which, in conjunction with excellent safety features throughout your premises, means that you are doing every thing necessary to ensure fire safety in your day care. Your job, quite simply, is to take whatever steps necessary to minimize fire risk and should a fire occur you will have procedures in place to evacuate staff and children quickly.

You will need to put a fire safety program in place in order to realize this goal. Much of this is common sense and good housekeeping practice so should not cost much in terms of time or money. One member of staff should be assigned responsibility for the fire safety program and they should be involved in drawing up a brief written statement outlining the elements that constitute your program.

What steps are you taking to avoid the risk of a fire at your day care? The fire safety program should detail what fire prevention measures are in place at your day care. You could include in this list of steps safe storage of flammable gases or liquids, details of gas and electrical appliance inspections, ensuring safe cooking practices in the kitchen, utilizing non combustible materials where possible.

Ongoing staff training is a vital element of fire prevention so that staff know what to do in the event of an emergency and can do so calmly and quickly. All staff should be aware of the location of fire exits, fire fighting equipment, fire protection equipment and fire detection facilities. Training should also involve the use of this equipment where necessary and the procedure involved in emergency procedures and evacuation drills. This training can be undertaken during staff induction however regular refreshers should occur annually.

In order that staff can react effectively in an emergency you should implement regular fire drills at your day care. You should have monthly emergency evacuations which should occur without warning. These drills should take into consideration the following factors, how many people are on the premises, if any of them are disabled or sleeping as these individuals should be given high priority. Following evacuation all persons should gather at a prearranged assembly point and designated staff members should account for everybody. The roll book will have been evacuated also to accommodate the roll call. Finally, your fire drill report will review the event and highlight any areas that are cause for concern or improvement.

Up to date fire safety records should be maintained at your day care detailing all aspects of your fire safety procedures. You will include in this record the name of the day care and person running it, address, designated fire safety person, person responsible for calling the fire brigade, how many children are catered for, a plan of each floor, details of staff training and fire drills and a list of fire fighting equipment with details of inspections.

You will need to ensure the adequacy of the fire safety features of your individual premises i.e. actual structure, windows, doors, equipment, appliances, fittings and furnishings. Your fire officer can help you ensure that everything is up to standard. Ultimately, leave nothing to chance. Seek professional help if you have any doubts thus ensuring that your premises is as fire safe as possible from the get go.

Click here to read other articles by Fiona Lohrenz.

Copyright © Fiona Lohrenz. Fiona has been running her own day care for the past 10 years and is the founder of a childcare website that offers articles and resources for child care providers and parents. She has also produced 'Start a ChildCare Business' DVD found here. Reprinted with permission.

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