Assessing and Developing Fire Safety at Company X

Abstract

This thesis was commissioned by a company that works in the automotive industry focusing on retail, maintenance, and distribution. The company had noticed that their fire drills had some weaknesses that they wanted to have fixed. Another aspect they wished developing on was employee trainings regarding safety. The objectives of this thesis were to find out the flaws regarding fire safety of the premises and how to improve them, and to assess how employees can be better trained.

Methodology used included interviews of employees, document review and a safety walk. The document review included multiple sources, such as laws and regulations in Finland, academic literature, and the already existing documents presented by the commissioner. The safety walk gave insight into the current situation of physical aspects related to fire safety.

The results revealed that the current situation is not entirely bad but in need of improvement. The employee know-how needed to be developed and fire drill situations made more coherent and clearer for all participants. It is suggested that all employees go through a training where they learn all the important safety aspects of the premises, such as locations of emergency exits and portable fire extinguishers. Finally, a fire drill shall take place to see if things have changed and whether the results of the fire drill have improved. Ultimately, the commissioner was satisfied with the results.