With offices and workspaces becoming more technologically advanced around the UK, with huge advancements every few years, it’s vital that electrical safety is at the top of your list when conducting a risk assessment of your workplace. As new devices are introduced, such as video conferencing devices and new computers, it adds to the risk of an electrical fire if not properly looked after.
Praxis42 bring us an insight into electrical safety in the workplace and how you can go about securing you and your employees from the risk.
In England, there were 15,432 fires caused by electricity in 2016, which makes up 54.4% of all fires, that’s an average of 4 electrical fires a day. It’s vital that we all stay alert for the common signs of a possible electrical fire to avoid harm and potential fatalities.
Signs
Identifying the known signs of electrical hazards is the first step to a safe and secure office. With several hazards to look out for such as electric shock, arc flash or arc blast, ensure you’re fully prepared to spot for signs of these.
Arc faults are caused by currents passing between two conducting metals through ionised gas or vapour, by conductive material such as a screwdriver. These can cause extremely severe damage to anyone around and can often cause death. It’s extremely important to conduct maintenance work on or near anything electrical while all power is turned off. Don’t try to save time on work by fitting maintenance into work hours as this could cause serious harm. With any flash arc hazards it’s vital that PPE is worn always and it should be labelled to warn of the danger.
Other signs are more common in the workplace, especially an office, where there’s many computers and devices congregating in one area. Any sparks from faulty wires or computers must be replacing as soon as it’s noticed as these sparks can be caught by flammable objects. Ensure that no flammable materials are left where sparks could potentially reach them.
Ensure that your wiring is properly sorted, by avoiding interlocking plug sockets together to daisy chain them. If one device in the chain short circuits or overloads then this can have a domino effect on the rest of the connected devices, increasing the chance of fire exponentially.
Educate
The best way to ensure that these hazards are noticed and fixed quickly, you need to educate yourself and your employees. This way everyone has the knowledge they need to notice any sparks, damaged wires/devices or overuse of outlets and let everybody know.
Conducting a risk assessment of the workplace is the first step, before work is started, to make sure that the workplace is safe to use. You can conduct a risk assessment yourself or hire a company such as Praxis42 to conduct one on your behalf. This allows you peace of mind, knowing that your workplace is secure against any hazards.
E-learning is an excellent tool to educate you and your workforce in electrical safety. Without the need to take days off for your employees to travel physical courses, E-learning can be done on your own time, on your own device and at your own speed. Allowing you and your employees to properly take in the information and put it to good use.
