Each installation head managing a Postal Service facility with more than 10,000 square feet must maintain a written fire prevention plan (FPP). Installation heads managing smaller facilities may maintain written FPPs when warranted by the operations conducted. Safety personnel and/or collateral duty FSCs may provide advice and technical assistance, where needed, in the development of such plans.
The FPP must include the following elements (at a minimum):
- A list of the following:
- Significant workplace fire hazards.
- Handling, storage, and control procedures.
- Ignition sources (e.g., welding, electrical equipment, and heaters).
- Types of fire protection equipment or systems available to contain, extinguish, and control fires.
- Names or regular job titles of personnel responsible for maintaining the equipment used to prevent or control fires.
- Names or regular job titles of personnel responsible for control of fuel–source hazards.
- Procedures to control the accumulation of flammable and combustible waste materials and residues so that they do not cause fires.
Employees must be instructed by their immediate supervisor in the following procedures at least once a year and any time there is a change in the plan or their role:
- Evacuation and emergency procedures of the installation.
- Use of fire–extinguishing equipment. (Employees whose work station is in or adjacent to high–hazard operations must be trained in the use of appropriate fire–extinguishing equipment for that specific operation.)
- Good housekeeping practices.
- Observance of smoking rules.
- HAZMAT incidental release SOP using Handbook EL–812, Hazardous Materials and Spill Response.
To maintain the EAP, a sufficient number of employees must be designated and trained to:
- Assist with the execution of a safe and orderly emergency evacuation, and
- Deal with incidental and emergency releases of HAZMAT in the mail and elsewhere.
This pool of employees must be kept current. See MI EL-810-2006-3, Response to Hazardous Materials Releases.
To maintain the FPP, the immediate supervisor must inform all employees of the fire hazards in the work area to which they may be exposed.
The immediate supervisor must orient all newly assigned employees to those parts of the EAP and FPP that the employees must know to protect themselves in an emergency.
The written plans must be kept at the workplace and be made available for employee review. The EAP and FPP must be reviewed with each employee of the installation:
- Annually.
- Whenever there is a change in employee responsibilities or designated actions under the plans.
- Whenever the plans are revised.
