According to research conducted by the US Fire Administration, there have so far been over 1,200 home fire fatalities reported in the media from January-August 2025, and in 2023 the property loss from fire was valued at around $23.2 billion. Despite this, fire safety and prevention awareness is lacking in many homes and workplaces. Conducting fire risk assessments is important in homes, offices and community buildings to avoid some of the most common causes of fire, and there are essential steps you can take to avoid the outbreak of fire in your home or premises.
Fire Prevention: Identify Potential Hazards
Some fire hazards are more obvious than others and will therefore be easier to spot. However, it’s important to be aware of all potential dangers to life so you can protect yourself and others as much as possible.
Combustible Materials
One of the more obvious potential hazards, combustible materials are easy to spot and neutralise if you know what you’re looking for. Flammable liquids such as gasoline or paint that aren’t properly stored away can become a risk to life. Paper, cardboard, cloth or wood can also become an issue when exposed to a heat source, so it’s best to keep these in a separate place. Clutter lying around in the attic or basement becomes kindling under the right circumstances, so keep this in mind.
Electrical Hazards
Keep an eye out for damaged wiring and overloaded extension cables in your family home or office. Appliances such as hair straighteners or dryers can begin to burn and eventually start fires if left unattended with the power on, particularly when left on beds or carpets. Blocked or dusty vents can also be a risk to fire safety, so ensure these are kept clean and uncluttered.
Heat Sources
Heat sources are one of the primary causes of fire in most households and commercial buildings, particularly when they are combined with combustible materials. Items such as space heaters left too close to chairs or curtains, ovens, stovetops, candles, and cigarettes can all pose a risk if misused or neglected.
Cooking Areas
Kitchens are one of the most prolific sources of fire outbreaks. Grease buildup that comes with preparing and heating certain foods can easily fuel kitchen fires, and leaving your oven or stove unsupervised for prolonged periods can have disastrous results. Finally, leaving combustible tools and items like tea towels, pot holders and wrappers around risks ignition, particularly if your workspace is already unclean.
Tips for Fire Safety
Each of these risks can be moderated with changes in habit and the implementation of certain facilities or procedures. By following the guidelines, you can make the risk of a fire outbreak in your home or workplace much less likely.
Install Smoke Alarms
This is one of the most fundamental procedures to undergo when fire-proofing your premises. You should install fire and smoke alarms on every level of your building for maximum protection. Fire detection systems are an early warning service that saves lives and prevents serious injury from burns and smoke inhalation. Some battery or mains alarms are interlinked, so when one goes off it triggers the others in quick succession. Fire and smoke alarms are incredibly useful safety features which give people peace of mind, knowing that they would be alerted swiftly and be able to make an escape in the event of a fire.
It is important to regularly test your alarms to ensure that they are functional and up to standard.
Invest in Fire Doors
Fire doors, particularly fire exit doors, are an essential resource for large buildings and are also useful for ordinary households. They act as a protective barrier which blocks fires from spreading throughout the building and causing further damage. This is particularly important for ensuring people are able to escape the premises, which lowers the number of rescue operations firefighters may need to conduct inside the building
Fire doors at Doors4Security come with a full weather seal and can be purchased with a panic exit bar, ideal for emergency situations where the building needs to be vacated quickly. Like our steel security doors, installation of our fire exit doors is quick and easy, and we also supply additional hardware such as handles and panic bolt bars to give you extra peace of mind.
Manage Risks
Mitigating fire outbreak isn’t merely a case of installing specialist facilities. Tips for fire safety also extend to other cost effective methods. Stopping smoking or eliminating cigarette use in certain rooms can achieve this, as can switching from ordinary candles to LED candles. As the majority of household fires start when people are cooking, altering your food heating methods (for example, using a slow cooker or air fryer instead of an oven can rapidly decrease this risk). Ensure flammable items including furniture and drying clothes are kept away from heaters and fires, and arrange a gas safety check each year for your appliances.
Escape Routes
Both at home and in the office, maintaining an awareness of escape routes and ensuring they remain accessible is vital to staying safe in the outbreak of a fire. In commercial buildings, emergency exits should be clearly labelled with illuminated or photo-luminescent signs on the walls. As an added measure, install battery-backed lighting to illuminate exit routes during power failures. Ensure you keep escape routes free of obstructions at all times. There should be no storage, furniture or trash is stacked on the route, particularly need the doors as this can prevent them from functioning normally.
Save Lives, Save Homes
By adhering to advice, the risk of injury or death due to fire outbreak will fall dramatically. But the installation of facilities like fire exit doors will not only play an essential role in life safety, but protects property and assets, minimizing damage to office equipment, data, documents, and the structural integrity of the establishment, meaning less expenditure of resources to repair any damage in the aftermath.
Find out more about our fire doors and other products by getting in touch.
