Whether you’re growing cannabis for medical or recreational use, fire safety is critical to your operation. After all, it doesn’t take much to start a fire in an indoor grow facility. Tragically, there have been several fires at legal cannabis grow facilities in recent years. Fires can spread quickly and with devastating consequences if precautions aren’t taken to prevent them from happening.

If you operate a cultivation business and are concerned about the risks of fire as well as other potential hazards that could put employees or customers at risk, here are a few ideas for how you can make your grow operation safer.

Install Fire Detection and Suppression Systems

Fire sprinkler systems are designed to quickly detect the presence of a fire and automatically activate sprinkler heads. Fire detection systems may be in the form of wired smoke detectors or thermal imaging cameras. Fire suppression systems can be activated by the same smoke detectors that detect the presence of the fire. Both of these technologies can be critical in the event of a fire in your grow operation. Make sure you select fire detection and suppression systems that have been independently tested and certified to meet recognized safety standards.

Some states require that cannabis growers install fire sprinkler systems in their operations. Whether a fire sprinkler system is required by your state’s regulatory agency or is a choice you make as a grower, it’s a critical safety feature in any indoor grow operation.

Provide Adequate Personnel Training

One of the most important things you can do to protect the people working in your grow operation is to make sure they understand the potential hazards they may encounter while on the job. By increasing employee awareness of potential hazards and installing the right safety equipment, you can greatly reduce the risk of a fire occurring at your cannabis cultivation facility.

Whether you’re hiring new staff members or training existing employees on new equipment, you should always provide sufficient and thorough training on the hazards they may encounter while on the job. Some typical topics to cover in employee training include electrical, fire, and emergency evacuation procedures. Knowing what to do could prevent or stop a fire in your facility.

It’s also recommended that employers provide training on how to properly use a respirator and fit-test any workers who will be wearing respirators in the workplace. Employee training is critical to the safety of your grow operation for another reason: it gives you a record of who has been trained, when they were trained, and what topics were covered in the training. This is important documentation to have in case of an accident that results in a workplace injury.

Establish Clear and Frequent Communication Protocols

An easy way to protect your employees from potential hazards is to establish clear and frequent communication protocols. This means that you create a set way for your employees to communicate with each other and with you as the owner of the business. For example, you might establish a regularly scheduled time for employees to report any issues they’ve encountered during the day that they think could lead to a safety hazard or any repairs they think should be made to the facility.

You should take every opportunity to remind employees that they need to be honest and transparent about any potential hazards they encounter during the work day. This will help you identify potential hazards before they turn into serious issues. For example, reporting the smell of smoke or that an outlet isn’t working can find potential fire hazards quickly before they escalate.

Make Sure Your Facilities are Adequately Ventilated

To prevent fires and ensure that you’re able to quickly stop them if they do occur, you must keep the rooms in your facility with high-risk equipment adequately ventilated. This will help reduce fire spread and reduce the amount of combustible materials in the air. It’s also recommended that you make sure your ventilation systems are sized appropriately for the number of workers in your grow operation. Large rooms and equipment rooms can quickly become too warm and crowded if the ventilation isn’t sufficient to keep people comfortable.

Install a Fire-Resistant Flooring Material

The type of flooring material that you select for your grow operation can greatly impact the fire resistance of your facility. You should be aware that some flooring materials are more resistant to fire than others. For example, hardwood floors are a fire hazard. You should select a fire-resistant flooring material for your indoor grow operation, such as natural stone, ceramic tile, and vinyl flooring.

Use Licensed Electricians to Install Your Electrical Equipment

Breakers and circuit breakers are designed to automatically trip and shut off electricity when there is a fire or some other type of emergency situation. However, fire incidents often involve explosions, which can result in damage to the breakers. Consequently, it’s important to make sure that any breakers in your grow operation are installed by a licensed electrician. This will give you some peace of mind that the circuit breakers in your operation will trip when they’re supposed to.

Create Visibility With Good Lighting

You can improve visibility in your indoor grow operation by installing high-quality light fixtures. You want to make sure that you select fixtures that are rated for indoor use so they don’t generate excess heat that can contribute to indoor grow facility fires. Light fixtures that produce light in the blue wavelength spectrum have been proven to improve visibility in grow operations while also helping to boost plant production.

Call to Get a Quote for Cannabis Insurance

It’s critical that you take every step to protect your employees, yourself, and your grow operation. Failing to do so can result in a tragedy that no one wants. The best way to keep your operation safe is to implement a comprehensive safety program and take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of your employees and grow operations.

Millers Insurance Group provides cannabis insurance to protect your company in the event a fire happens. Please reach out to us or fill out our online form to get an insurance quote today.