Top Fire Fighting Tips For Home And Business
Fire prevention can help to reduce the likelihood of a fire occurring, but not eliminate the chance of fire altogether so knowing how to fight a fire safely is essential to stop it getting out of control.
But, and an important but, it is also imperative you know when to fight a fire, as some fires are beyond your control and the best course of action for your safety and others is to evacuate the area as quickly as possible.
To make sure that you have the best chance of escaping a fire and possibly stopping it from getting out of control, here are some top fire fighting tips for home and work.
First Things First
Whether you are going to tackle the fire or not, call the Fire Service as it is easy to forget once you jump into action.
In the UK, the phone numbers 999, 911 (USA) and 112 (Europe) are all programmed to send you to the emergency services.
Fight Or Don’t Fight?
If a fire has broken out, you need to decide fairly quickly if you are capable of fighting it or not. If the fire is small and looks to be contained then you can tackle it, providing you have the right fire extinguisher to hand. However, if the fire looks to be spreading get out of the room as quickly as possible, as a fire like this can double in size in just a few minutes.
Never, ever tackle a fire unless you believe you can put it out without risk to yourself, and should the fire spread you can still easily escape from the area unharmed.
Although you might want to try and be a hero, your life and those around you is more important than protecting your possessions from damage.
If You Do Fight The Fire
If you do decide to fight the fire, make sure you do so quickly to avoid the fire growing. Make sure you already know how to use the fire extinguisher, as there will not be time to work out how to use it whilst the fire rages. And make sure you have the right type of extinguisher for the fire, as using the wrong type could make things much worse.
Keep your exit free and at your back so you can escape easily, and if possible have someone nearby to call for help if things get out of hand. This will allow you to deal with the fire safely and effectively, as well as helping you to avoid injury.
Some Fires Should Not Be Fought
Whilst you might want to save your possessions, you need to realise that some fires are beyond your ability to control.
If the fire is spreading quickly or you do not know what is burning, then you need to evacuate immediately. Failing to do so could make things worse and could put your life or the lives of others in danger whilst you try to tackle a fire beyond your control.
Never risk your life to put out a fire, but rather concentrate on getting yourself out of the building to safety.
Different Fire Fighting Tools
Although fire extinguishers are the main fire fighting tool, there are other items that you can use to help you stop a fire. Fire blankets can be useful for small contained fires, as long as you can get close enough to apply the blanket. The blanket will stop oxygen from reaching the fire and put it out quickly.
A hose reel will be a big help but you need to be able to run it all the way to the fire without getting in the way of exits and people and without getting stuck.
You also need to know if it is automatic – it will turn the water flow on without a tap but you still need to twist the nozzle – or manual – you will need to turn the tap by the reel and twist the nozzle.
However, fire extinguishers are still the most effective method of putting out a fire, as long as the right extinguisher is used for the particular fire. A water-based extinguisher can also be used to damp down “hot spots” to ensure a fire will not re-ignite.
Fighting fires can be done safely and can prevent damage to property and possessions. However, the most important fire fighting tip is to only fight the fire if you are in a position where you can still escape.
If there is any doubt, any at all, get out of the premises immediately and stay out. Leave the hero stuff to the professional fire fighters.
http://www.FireProtectionOnline.co.uk features a huge range of fire extinguishers and fire safety equipment for business and homes along with the FPO Discount Club for fire safety Law updates
Today’s Best Fire Prevention Tools And Techniques
Although knowing how to fight fires and use fire extinguishers is important, the best tool to fight fires is fire prevention. If you can take adequate steps to avoid the dangers of fire and detect the signs early then you are much less likely to be involved in a serious incident.
Fire prevention ranges from knowing how to install smoke alarms to dialling emergency services and knowing emergency numbers. It also includes knowing where particular fire hazards are located and how to minimise these hazards so that fires can be prevented.
Here is a guide to the best fire prevention tools and techniques to protect your home and your workplace.
Smoke Alarms And Smoke Detectors
Smoke alarms (or smoke detectors) are one of the best ways to detect fires early, thereby preventing serious fires from occurring. They are particularly good for fires that might occur at night, which can be silent killers with smoke and deadly gases.
Make sure you have smoke detectors installed on every floor in your home and in regular places at work in accordance with the accepted national safety standards (BS 5839 in the UK).
You should also install a carbon monoxide detector, which can detect the deadly gas produced by fires and hidden electrical burning and, more commonly, gas leaks from boilers and equipment.
All detectors should be tested regularly to make sure they work and the batteries in the cheaper standard detectors should be replaced once a year. Better still would be mains-operated or 10-year lithium battery detectors.
Kitchens And Garages
Although you might think smoke alarms should be in the places where fires are likely to start such as kitchens, it is actually a bad idea to have “smoke” alarms in the kitchen or garage, as they can easily be triggered by cooking and fumes from car exhausts.
Instead, fit heat detectors in these two areas as they respond to fast temperature rises and will stop nuisance alarms.
Always make sure you can hear the alarms where you sleep – if you cannot, install more of them and use interconnectable ones. Also, fit the alarms on the ceiling away from any wall or apex, as those on walls will not properly detect smoke or fumes.
Keep Flammable Materials And Products Secure
Keeping dangerous or flammable materials secure is extremely important, especially when children are around. Matches and lighters should be completely out of the reach of children, and flammable liquids or materials should not be near open flames or places where heat could cause them to catch fire.
Also, never leave appliances on whilst you are out of the house, such as cookers, stove or space heaters, as these could potentially create a fire.
Fire prevention is an ongoing concern, and you should remain vigilant for potential fire hazards around your home or at work. If you see something that might be a risk, sort it out immediately, as you never know when that potential hazard could become a real problem.
As long as you remain aware of the potential dangers, you will help prevent fires from occurring and keep people safe.
Have All The Necessary Fire Equipment
Not all fire prevention is about stopping fires before they start. Fire prevention can also mean dealing with problems quickly before they become major incidents. With this in mind, it is important to have a range of fire fighting equipment to use.
This includes fire extinguishers as well as fire blankets and also having an escape plan so that people can get to safety and call for help from the emergency services before things get out of hand.
And, when considering fire extinguishers, do you really think that businesses need big ones and homes need tiny ones? Get real and get as big as you can afford and make sure they are on all floors.
Fire prevention is perhaps even more important than fire fighting, especially within the home setting. If you can prevent serious fires from occurring in the first place by having adequate detection devices and remaining vigilant, then your home or workplace will remain safe for all those who occupy it.
http://www.FireProtectionOnline.co.uk features a huge range of fire extinguishers and fire safety equipment for business and homes along with the FPO Discount Club for fire safety Law updates
Shut Up And Take The Money -And What To Do When They Say, “Your Price Is Higher Than The Competition
While shopping one of the big box home store discounters for a client I watched a perfect example of overselling.
A woman standing by the store’s bathroom sink display asked the salesperson, “Does this sink come in rose color?” Immediately the salesperson replied, “It comes in rose, it comes in white, it comes in green, red, blue, almond, black, brown, gold.” He named at least another dozen colors. He then, without taking a breath, opened a book and began to read to her how the finish was applied and why it would never mar or discolor.
This all took less than a minute and a half. The women said thank you, turned and left. As she passed me I said to her, “Why didn’t you buy that sink?” She replied, “He would not shut up and sell it to me.”
are you over selling? Are you listening for the customers ‘Closing Statements?’ A ‘Closing Statement’ is anything the customer says that is positive about your product, service, business or you.
I first learned to shut up and take the money when my father taught me to sell tires. In the early 70′s the radial tire was introduced to the consumer market by Michelin tire company. It cost four times as much as a non-radial tire, with a starting price around $150 each.
Even though the cost was extremely high, my father sold well over half of his customers Michelin tires. I know sometimes the tires were worth more than the cars we put them on. He did it by listening for the customer’s closing statements. When he told them, “This tire will last 40,000 miles, over twice as long as a non-Michelin radial tire, give you a much smoother ride, and is a much safer tire.” They would say, “I like that.”
My father then shut up and wrote up the sale. He taught me to listen for closing statements like, “That will work”, “My wife will like that”, “I like that”.
Some closing statements are questions: Can you deliver it today?, What is the guarantee? , Can you put them on the car right away? Do you have financing? Do you take credit cards? (Of course you answer them as you are writing up the sale).
Make sure you listen for closing statements with your eyes. Watch the customer’s facial expressions. You will know when they are pleased by something you say.
Another approach is to get the product in the customer’s hands. As soon as the customers take the product I am handing them, I start writing up the sale. Possession becomes ownership. Writing up the sale transfers ownership.
Sometimes the closing statement is, “Your price is higher than the competition’s.” Yes, that is a closing statement. They are telling you they like your product / service. They want to buy it. You have simply not given them the right information to let them justify spending their money. You have not proved to them that buying from you is worth more than buying from the competition.
All you have to do is use the ‘Higher Price Agreement Close.’
Here is how it works.
They say “Your price is higher than the competitions.” You do not get defensive. They can sense your fear. You simply nod yes and say. “I understand how you feel, and yes it is a few dollars more.
That is the same way other customers felt before they realized when you purchase your (name the product / service) you also get
(Name 3 things you give the customer the competition doesn’t).
Example: I was always the highest priced dealer. One of the television lines I sold was GE. Everyone and their brother sold GE televisions. It was the easiest product for the customer to compare shop.
Every time I heard, “Your price is higher than everyone else’s,” I immediately started writing up the sale while saying, “I understand how you feel, and yes we do charge a few dollars more. That is the same way other customers felt before they realized when you purchase your new color television from us you receive 7 days a week service, not 5. We give you a free extended warranty, and we guarantee you the top trade-in value, in writing, for your television 5 years from now, whether it is working or not.
Then I shut up and waited for the customer to say something. The first one who talks loses.
Stop thinking you have to tell the customer everything about your product / service. You don’t. All you have to do is inform them enough for them to think your product / service will help them solve their problem, need or want. And when they think it they usually make a closing statement. Shut up and take the money.
Bob Janet uses 40 plus years of face-to-face selling and marketing experiences, combined with his unique fun-entertaining presentation audience involved style to help sellers gain and retain their most profitable customers. See all Bob’s sales growth programs at http://www.BobJanet.com
Niche Marketing in the Hospitality Industry
Welcome to our glorious capitalist society, where every entrepreneur may stay busy at whatever industry they like for as long as they wish to be industrious. Just look at those busy wheels of the marketplace turn, will you! Beautiful to watch it all go round, but when you dive in, you’ll notice that you have this little factor against which you must struggle to make your business succeed: competition.
Yes, it is kind of a kill-joy that so many of your customers have the option of taking their business somewhere else. Particularly in the hospitality field, where restaurants, bars, hotels, and casinos are so commonly found everywhere. You can compete directly, trying to outdo your competitors on either price or quality. But when that fails, a possible strategy to consider is going for a niche market.
Here, you specialize in one particular category, and profess to do that one thing well and do it exclusively. The Starbucks coffee franchise is an excellent example: They started out as a small chain of espresso shops in Seattle, Washington. That’s it, that’s all they’re known for: coffee. Although their success has helped them branch out into tea and other drinks, as well as snacks and pastry. So now they’re more of a chain of cafes mostly known for their coffee.
It is arguable that Starbucks would not have existed without the college/techie crowd. The chain became the “happening” place for college students and especially technology entrepreneurs, two groups who are known for their enthusiasm about coffee beverages. The decor and atmosphere of the earliest Starbucks stores reflects this very well: a hip, urban, sophisticated atmosphere, where you wouldn’t at all be surprised to find a poet scribbling on a legal pad, a programmer or blogger tattering away on a laptop, an artist quietly sketching the crowd, and a couple of old intellectuals playing chess at a corner table, all the while with the alternative music on the speakers providing the subtext.
Bars are a prime candidate for niche specialization. We’ve all discovered the country/western themed bar, the disco club, the working-class “fern bar”, the biker bar, the sailor bar, and the popular sports bar. Bars cater to a wide range of specialties, and there are establishments dedicated to singles, bars exclusively for the members of an alternative lifestyle to meet and mingle, or bars themed for the fans of a particular genre of music. Bars, being for recreational purposes anyway, lend themselves easily to having a theme. You also see bars marketing to an age-based niche, such as establishments themed as “speakeasies” or catering to a jazz-loving crowd. Anything from a 1950′s “sock hop” to a 1990′s “yuppie safari” can be styled with a bar.
Restaurants are another frequent candidate for niche specialties. Virtually any ethnic variety of food is represented in a restaurant somewhere. But restaurants have many more options for finding their niche than just their national identity on the menu; and so we have truck-stop diners, wine-country bed-and-breakfast inns, swanky upper-crust establishments, sidewalk cafes, family-oriented pizza parlors, and specialties like bakeries and ice-cream shops.
It could be argued that pizza, by itself, is no longer identified with Italian food. The national “Chuck E. Cheese” chain demonstrates that very well. Founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell in San Jose California, they knew their target market was suburban families, and so they set up a restaurant not just selling pizza, but arcades, shows, and a wide variety of entertainment aimed mostly at small children. The chain remains today as one of the few reliably family-friendly establishments to offer a viable option for a night out for the whole household. The restaurant is suburban and Americanized; you will find very little references to Italy aside from the menu.
Even hotels and casinos get in on the niche marketing action. Here, the niche marketing is less important, since these establishments are too large to not be aimed at being for everyone. Casinos especially aim for a specific theme to style everything after. A cruise of the Las Vegas strip will reveal casinos themed after an ancient Roman emperor, a Western saloon, an Egyptian pyramid, the city of Paris, the city of Venice, and so on. Many casinos now target fun for the whole family as well, and include everything from movie theaters to full scale amusement parks with rides, live shows, and attractions.
Whatever niche you pick for your own business, you should be able to understand your target audience. Think of it as a system of points. You score one point for your Asian restaurant if your menu is authentic enough that a member of that country could eat there and not know the difference. You score more points if the business is decorated with a theme of the country; for an Asian restaurant Foo dogs, Buddhas, and bamboo and water fountains are all popular touches. You score another point for your Asian theme if you offer chopsticks as an alternative utensil. And so on. Each point you can add to the score card represents one more way you can provide your niche market customer base with an authentic experience.
Freelance writer for over eleven years.
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How Lean Six Sigma Can Bring Quality And Efficiency To Firms
To ensure the success of lean Six Sigma implementations, the project manager should not only have the requisite Six Sigma qualifications and training, but should also have knowledge about the basics of Lean 6 Sigma. Given below are some of the basics of Lean 6 Sigma, which are applicable to manufacturing firms that are in the process of implementing Lean Six Sigma.
Data Authenticity
Even the most advanced computerized systems installed in an organization will not be effective as long as the data or information that is used as input is incorrect. This is why it is necessary to concentrate efforts on gathering genuine data relevant to the needs and requirements of a particular Lean 6 Sigma improvement initiative.
Managing Performance
Lean Six Sigma implementation projects require team effort. If a team were strained with the personal egos of individual team members, it would become quite difficult to achieve the desired results in time. The project manager should continuously try to motivate team members to contribute their efforts towards the achievement of common Lean 6 Sigma goals and objectives.
Production System
Lean 6 Sigma lays stress on employing sequential production techniques, rather than depending on the obsolete shop scheduling production technique. The fact that sequential production techniques are quite effective is easily evident from the use of such techniques by manufacturing behemoths. This however does not imply that this technique is only beneficial for large corporations. Small and medium sized enterprises can also derive the same benefits from this new production methodology.
Effective Logistics
Lean 6 Sigma stresses building a simple yet effective logistical platform that helps in reducing inventory-carrying costs, while improving efficiency at the same time. Such a logistical system is characterized by continuous flow of raw materials and finished goods from point A to point B.
Cycle Time Management
Lean 6 Sigma methodologies stress reducing long cycle times, which are a reflection of inefficient manufacturing processes and excessive non-value-added costs. The focus is on eliminating the root cause of extended cycle times, rather than devising short-term solutions.
Linear Production Model
Lean Six Sigma stresses designing a production model that can be configured as and when needed, depending on the existing demand. It should be flexible so that the production can be decreased or increased according to seasonal variations, without affecting the quality of the end product.
Timely Decisions
To make the most of what the market has to offer, manufacturing firms need to be proactive in making essential strategic decisions, such as when to downsize and when to start recruiting. A timely decision is one of the main factors that make the difference between a lost opportunity and increased profitability. Lean Six Sigma is beneficial because it helps in making timely business decisions.
Having knowledge about the above stated Lean Six Sigma basics will help project managers to complete the implementations successfully and within the specified planned period. It will also help in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the implemented Lean Six Sigma project.
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six
sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.