Fire safety is a major consideration when planning to open a day care facility. The safety of every individual who may enter your premises, staff, children, parents and visitors, is paramount and ultimately, your responsibility. It is vital therefore that you have an effective fire safety management policy as fire safety is achieved via this policy combined with adequate fire safety features in your premises. Simply, your goal is to effect whatever measure necessary to minimize the risk of a fire occurring and if a fire does breakout to ensure that staff and children are evacuated swiftly and safely.

You will need to put a fire safety program in place in order to realize this goal. This is not a costly venture as it should be incorporated into your daily procedures and entails a lot of common sense and good housekeeping which you are doing anyway. 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? This is what your fire safety program should detail i.e. your prevention policy and procedures. You could include in this list of steps safe storage of flammable gases or liquids, details of gas and electrical appliance inspections, how you ensure fire safety in the kitchen, using non combustible waste disposal bins and other fire retardant materials throughout your premises.

In order that your staff know how to deal effectively and calmly with an emergency situation you should provide ongoing staff training. Fire prevention entails knowing what to do, where to go and how to do it so all staff should now the location of fire exits, fire fighting and protection equipment and fire detection and alarm facilities. All your training should cover the use of the above items plus exactly what to do during a fire drill. Staff induction is a good time to cover these elements but it is vital that annual training be undertaken also.

Regular fire drills should take place in your day care to ensure that staff are capable of reacting should an emergency situation occur. Monthly emergency evacuations i.e. fire drills should be planned and occur without warning. The procedures involved in these evacuations should take into account how many people are on the premises, whether or not any of them are disabled or sleeping, sleeping children should always be given a high priority in an emergency situation. All persons should be evacuated to a pre arranged assembly point where designated staff members should ensure everyone is present and accounted for. The roll book should be brought to the assembly point for this purpose. Every fire drill should be reviewed in the Fire Drill Report to identify any problems or cause for review.

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.

The fire safety features of your individual premises are your responsibility e.g. the building itself, doors, windows, appliances, equipment, furnishings and fittings. Your fire officer can help you ensure that everything is up to standard. Essentially, you cannot afford to leave anything 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.