Eaton Shares Five Questions to Ask Your Employer About its Fire Prevention Plan in Honor of October’s Fire Prevention Month

October 26, 2015

CLEVELAND, OH — Power management company Eaton today offers five questions to ask your employer about its fire prevention plan as part of Fire Prevention Month this October. Understanding your workplace’s fire prevention plan and what to expect in an emergency can save precious time. Many employers are required to have an emergency action plan and most office buildings are equipped with some form of notification and communications system. When disaster strikes, every moment counts.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the trade organization that sponsors Fire Prevention Week in early October, estimates that U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 3,340 fires in office properties per year from 2007 to 2011. These fires caused an annual average of four civilian deaths, 44 civilian injuries and $112 million in direct property damage.

“With a significant portion of time spent in our place of work, it is important for every employee to have an understanding of what to do in the event of a fire or emergency,” said Judy Comoletti, division manager of public education, NFPA. “Buildings should be equipped with emergency notification systems that can quickly alert building habitants of a fire and it is key that people don’t ignore them. They should act quickly when they are alerted to an emergency in order to safely evacuate the building.”

Five Questions to Ask Your Employer About Its Fire Prevention Plan:

1. How will I be notified in the event of a fire or an emergency? – While you are likely familiar with fire alarm and voice evacuation systems, the primary means of communication in the event of a fire, ask your employer about what other methods of communication will be used to alert you. From in-building emergency communications systems to wide-area, outdoor giant voice systems and personal notifications to your email or mobile phone, it’s important to know which channels may be used to keep you informed before, during, and after an emergency as communications innovations have greatly improved the ability to access, monitor and activate a mass notification system anywhere, anytime. Eaton’s ALERiTY® mass notification platform provides critical audible and visual messages that are specific to the emergency, specific to the area affected, and in real time. It can also alert security, fire, police and health departments in real time. It’s currently in use in facilities across the country, including the MillerCoors mega brewery in Fort Worth, Texas, and the University of Central Florida (UCF) campus in Orlando.
    
2. When will I know that it’s safe to return to the building? – Office managers and first responders may alert you when it’s safe to return, but the latest systems can also notify you through voice over the emergency communication system. Voice allows for more informative communications. For example, Eaton’s SAFEPATH voice evacuation system provides personnel and building occupants with pre- and post-tone alerts and intelligible live and pre-recorded voice messages that communicate what to do in response to an emergency, including when you can return. The multi-use system can function as an evacuation system, emergency messaging system, paging system, employee notification system and more.
    
3. How do I notify occupants in the event of a fire? – Identify the locations of manual pull stations so that you are able to activate the fire alarm system to sound an alarm in the event of a fire. Also, speak to your building manager about other methods of notifying building personnel and first responders. For example, a local operating control panel, which may be stationed in the reception area, could be used to activate specific messages from the building’s emergency communications system. In more harsh and hazardous workplaces, call points could be used to initiate audible tones through horns or voice messages through loudspeakers.
    
4. How will I know which path to take? – Your office building should have an emergency route prominently posted. Make sure to review this route from areas you visit most frequently. However, in emergency situations it can be easy to forget the quickest route to safety. That’s when emergency lighting plays a critical role in directing people to safety and communicating evacuation routes. Eaton is the first to introduce light-emitting diode (LED) emergency luminaires that provide a virtually razor-straight rectangle or square of light – rather than a circle. Eaton’s Sure-Lites PathLinx emergency light features patented AccuLED Optics™ technology. Both products create superior egress coverage and provide extremely uniform light output to better define a building’s escape route in an emergency situation.
    
5. Where is our employee mustering station or meeting place? – Establishing an employee meeting place helps ensure all building occupants can be accounted for in the event of an evacuation. Most facilities have a designated mustering station, a meeting location away from the building to avoid any potential debris from the building and to allow the fire department clear access to the building. Make sure you know the location of your company’s mustering station.

“Fire Prevention Month underscores the importance of prevention, protection and preparation to help keep people and facilities safe in emergency situations,” said Ted Milburn, vice president of marketing, Eaton. “Seconds count in a crisis, and Eaton’s life safety and mass notification systems apply the latest technologies to help keep people well-informed when it matters most. Effective and swift communication in the workplace is paramount to reducing injuries and ensuring safety.”

To learn more about Eaton’s ever-growing innovative capabilities to solve emergency communication and power management challenges, visit www.eaton.com/energizing.

Eaton’s electrical business is a global leader with expertise in power distribution and circuit protection; backup power protection; control and automation; lighting and security; structural solutions and wiring devices; solutions for harsh and hazardous environments; and engineering services. Eaton is positioned through its global solutions to answer today’s most critical electrical power management challenges.

Eaton is a power management company with 2014 sales of $22.6 billion. Eaton provides energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton has approximately 99,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries.