Every year, many business owners face one of their biggest fears: a fire breaks out in their building and threatens their customers, employees, and business property. It is because the threat of a fire is so scary that most business owners will do all they can to avoid a major blaze and keep fire control items on hand, especially fire extinguishers. While you may have a few fire extinguishers in your retail store and may have even trained employees on when and how to use them, the big question is: do you have them in the right places? Here are three important places to keep a fire extinguisher in your retail store.
In Employee Break Areas
If you are like most retail establishments, you will have a space somewhere in the back of the store where employees keep their lunch or take their breaks. This space most likely has things like a toaster, a microwave, or even an electric skillet or toaster oven. This area should be treated just like a kitchen at home, which means you should have a fire extinguisher readily available so employees can tackle a flame if they have a cooking mishap so it does not put the rest of the store in danger.
In Household Chemical Aisles
Many types of household chemicals are flammable, from air fresheners to basic floor cleaning agents. Therefore, if a fire starts in the household chemical aisle, you could be facing a huge disaster and a huge blaze. For this reason, it is best to have a fire extinguisher in the aisle or readily accessible so if a small fire starts, the blaze can be quickly contained before the problem grows so out of hand that many of those flammable chemicals catch on fire.
Near or In Public Restroom Facilities
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for vandals to use the lack of security in public restrooms to their advantage. They may try to start a fire in the bathroom by lighting toilet paper on fire or setting paper towels ablaze in the sink. For this reason, it is crucial to have a fire extinguisher on hand in the restrooms so an associate can quickly take care of the blaze if it is still at a controllable size. If you prefer to keep the fire extinguishers in an area with surveillance, simply place them on the wall outside of the restroom doors.
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