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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.

In order to realize this goal you must have a fire safety program in place. 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. A brief written statement outlining the elements of the program should be drawn up. This can be done with the assistance of a nominated staff member who will also assume responsibility for overseeing and maintaining the fire safety program.

The fire safety program should detail what fire prevention measures are in place at your day care i.e. what steps are you taking to reduce or eliminate the risks of a fire occurring. These can include not storing flammable gases or liquids in the building, regular checks ensuring that all gas and electrical appliances are in safe working order, 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.

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.

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.