Reckon you'd know which sort of fire extinguisher you would use if you had to tackle an electrical fire where you work?  Or a chemical fire? Image of fire extinguishersOr do you hope you'd have time to read the small print? And under what circumstances should you try to tackle a fire anyway?

Latest figures suggest more than 60 per cent of the University's staff have never taken the time to complete the online fire safety training module available to everyone on Moodle. Under Scottish fire safety regulations, it's a statutory requirement that employers provide fire safety training for all employees.

Andy Mackay, the University’s Fire Safety Manager could be excused having sleepless nights worrying about the level of awareness.  He says: “Staff who have joined the University in the last two years are likely to have been encouraged by their managers and colleagues to set aside a little time to go through the training.  We suspect that longer serving colleagues, who arrived on campus before the online resource, may not know it’s available and also mandatory.

Do it now!

“However, it appears that only 35% of University staff have completed the training module.  Last year’s terrible fire at the Glasgow School of Art was a reminder that no institution, not even academic institutions, are immune to fires.”

The University’s Secretary of Court, David Newall, said: “To complete the training module takes so little time in the big scheme of things. I appeal to everyone who hasn’t gone through the Moodle training to do it now.  It’s interesting. You’ll learn things that you didn’t know. And no matter what you think you know, you will find it very hard to score 100%!  If you manage colleagues, please ask them to undertake the fire safety training. We owe it to our students and we owe it to our colleagues to make sure we have a good appreciation of what to do if confronted by fire or the threat of fire.”

The link to the fire safety training will be displayed prominently for the next month or so on the MyGlasgow Staff portal reached with your GUID.  Please visit the fire safety pages and, if you haven’t done so, complete the training course.

The direct link to the Moodle course is here: moodle2.gla.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=185  (accessible with your GUID).

Oh...if you thought blue was a water filled extinguisher...you were wrong.

Correctly labelled fire extinguishers

First published: 27 February 2015

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