If you are the owner of a business, you should have several fire extinguishers located around your premises. These fire extinguishers need to be professionally serviced approximately once a year. Here are two reasons why this type of servicing is so important.
It will keep your employees and customers safe
During a fire, time is of the essence; if a person fails to act quickly in putting out the flames, the fire could spread throughout the building and cause serious injuries and fatalities. Any employees or customers or clients who are on the premises at the time could be at risk of sustaining burns as well as lung damage from smoke inhalation.
A defective fire extinguisher is precisely the kind of thing that could result in a person failing to put out a fire fast enough. Let's say, for example, the person in question has never used a fire extinguisher before and needs to read the instructions on the label before they use it. If the label with the instructions is missing, the label has partially peeled off, or the print has faded, this could result in them being unable to operate the device correctly.
Similarly, if the fire extinguisher has a loosened or slightly wonky handle, which results in the person dropping and damaging the device before they have had a chance to use it, the fire will probably end up getting out of control.
One very simple way to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring is to have the fire extinguishers in your building serviced once a year. Most professionals who provide fire extinguisher services will check and, if necessary, replace instruction labels and repair damaged handles. In doing so, they could, quite literally, help to save your employees and customers' lives should a fire ever break out on your premises.
It can protect your business
A major fire could cause your business to fail, particularly if your enterprise is relatively new. If the damage that your place has sustained is extensive, you would most likely need to down your operations for several weeks or months whilst the repair work is carried out. This could result in you losing many of your customers (as they will likely seek out a replacement service or product during your absence) as well as your employees.
Whilst it might be possible to rebuild your business and your professional reputation after such a disaster, it would be extremely difficult to do so.
It would be far easier to take preventative action to reduce your chances of ending up in this type of situation. Making sure that your fire extinguishers are in excellent condition by having them professionally serviced is an effective way to do this.
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