THC conducts fire drills at dormitories
Fire exit drills have been conducted at Tan Holdings Corporation dormitories this past weekend. The company wants to ensure that workers are trained on emergency fire evacuation procedures in the dormitories as well as in the workplace.
Ron Biggers, head of the Office of Safety & Health Management, said, “We are now targeting our dormitories for fire drills after having conducted fire exit drills in our factories. A fire in a garment factory or dormitory is potentially the most dangerous safety hazard confronting workers. By conducting fire drills, we hope to minimize any evacuation problems in case of a real fire. The fire drills held over the weekend involved over 700 workers and will continue in the coming months until all workers have been trained. We are working closely with the local fire department in conducting these fire exit drills.”.
THC participates in a safety partnership with OSHA called “Excellence 2000”. A company has to be committed to complying with ten safety elements stipulated in the partnership or risk a poor performance review by OSHA whereby the agreement may be terminated.
“Training workers on emergency fire evacuation is one of the key elements of the safety partnership. The most important factor to consider in providing adequate worker safety in a fire situation is the availability of proper exit facilities to assure ready access to a safe area. We want to prevent disasters like the most recent fire in the Mexico nightclub where 19 people were killed primarily because the exits were blocked or were not designed to handle the number of people exiting the building,” Mr. Biggers said.
