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.

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.

In order that staff can react effectively in an emergency you should implement regular fire drills at your day care. You should have monthly emergency evacuations which should occur without warning. These drills should take into consideration the following factors, how many people are on the premises, if any of them are disabled or sleeping as these individuals should be given high priority. Following evacuation all persons should gather at a prearranged assembly point and designated staff members should account for everybody. The roll book will have been evacuated also to accommodate the roll call. Finally, your fire drill report will review the event and highlight any areas that are cause for concern or improvement.

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.

Fiona Lohrenz draws on her 10 years of running a day care to write articles on all aspects of child care. She also pours this wisdom into her childcare website and has used it to produce a ‘How to Start a ChildCare Business’ DVD guide: StartChildCare.com Fiona can be found at her website: ChildCareOnly.com

- Fiona Lohrenz