Practical Facilities Tips, News & Advice.
With this year marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has highlighted four ways that day changed the world of fire and life safety, shedding light on how the fire service, first responders, and others now do their jobs in ways that better protect themselves and enhance safety.
Many OSHA standards have requirements that must be fulfilled annually. In particular, OSHA’s fire safety standards have a number of inspection, testing, and training requirements that apply on an annual basis for certain facilities. Is your facility affected? Keep reading for a checklist of fire safety-related annual requirements.
It’s getting to that time of year, when the temperature drops below freezing and the pipes at your facility are at risk. Most people, including most facility managers, are aware of this risk with respect to ordinary plumbing found in bathrooms and kitchens. But, have you considered whether your property’s sprinkler system is at risk?
What did you see when you walked into your facility this morning? Were there cords snaking across the floor, remnants of a spill from a couple of days ago, or overflowing trash cans? Or did you observe a strong sense of order, with clear walkways, properly stored tools, well-lit and clearly marked stairways, and hazardous […]
Facilities managers depend on standards to efficiently and consistently do good work, and when it comes to safety, there are many resources for them to consult. The U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released a Safety Spotlight recommending that employers closely apply industry consensus standards to safeguard employee and public safety. Titled “The […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires facilities to have a detailed fire prevention plan when applicable standards require it. However, the agency “strongly recommends” that all facilities develop and implement a plan. How does your facility’s fire prevention plan stack up?
Wildfires can happen at any time, though changes in land use combined with the steady and continuing rise of global temperatures over the past decades have helped create the perfect environmental conditions for them to thrive. To compound the problem, more and more people are living and working in communities where the risks posed by […]
As facility professionals, we pay close attention to newsworthy workplace disasters. Based on the scale and severity of these incidents, perhaps we assume they could not occur in our own organizations—after all, this is what we work to prevent. But the fact is, disasters can happen anywhere.
At 5:50 p.m. on May 9, 2015, with the workday wrapping up, a transformer exploded at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester, New York, 50 miles north of Manhattan. The sprinkler systems triggered, and emergency response crews scrambled, working to keep the fire from reaching the nuclear installation just 200 yards away. The […]
To accompany their article, University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy’s online Executive Master of Urban Planning program put together an infographic that takes a look at some longitudinal data regarding wildfire intensity and severity. In accordance with these increases, the data highlight the exponential increase in the cost to fight each fire, […]