Fire safety procedures put into practice
The majority of our office clients were enjoying the Christmas holidays with their families and were un-aware of events that unfolded on the 30th December 2015. As you can see from the photograph above the Reading Fire Brigade were called out due to the Starbucks fire alarm being triggered.
What had happened?
In the basement below Starbucks where the electrical supply enters the building, card board boxes had been stacked up against the main electrical cables which had over heated and caused the cardboard to catch fire, this in turn melted the electrical cables that then shorted the mains electricity supply and knocked out the power for Starbucks.
QV Offices fire evacuation testing
At QV Offices we follow standard fire safety procedures, these include weekly testing of the fire alarms and twice a year we perform a full evacuation test, our clients are not told exactly when this will happen to ensure it is a true test of everyone's response to the alarm. I am very glad to say that this practice means that all our clients know exactly what to do and where to assemble if the alarm is triggered.
The real evacuation
On the day of the Starbucks fire there were only 5 people in the building due to the holiday period and I am glad to say they all evacuated extremely fast due to their understand of what to do in the event of an alarm, this highlights why it is so important for everyone to treat all alarms as though they are a real fire, because you never know when there may actually be one!
