The Fire Risk Assessment
The Fire Risk Assessment is just the starting point of Fire Safety Management at your premises; all other compliance needs flow from this.
Before getting into the risk assessment you should be aware of some of the other requirements of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005:-
- You must appoint one or more competent persons, depending on the size and use of your premises, to carry out any of the preventive and protective measures required by the Order (you can nominate yourself for this purpose). A competent person is someone with enough training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to be able to implement these measures properly.
- You must provide your employees with clear and relevant information on the risks to them identified by the fire risk assessment, about the measures you have taken to prevent fires, and how these measures will protect them if a fire breaks out.
- You must consult your employees (or their elected representatives) about nominating people to carry out particular roles in connection with fire safety and about proposals for improving the fire precautions.
- You must, before you employ a child, provide a parent with clear and relevant information on the risks to that child identified by the risk assessment, the measures you have put in place to prevent/protect them from fire and inform any other responsible person of any risks to that child arising from their undertaking.
- You must inform non-employees, such as temporary or contract workers, of the relevant risks to them, and provide them with information about who are the nominated competent persons, and about the fire safety procedures for the premises.
- You must co-operate and co-ordinate with other responsible persons who also have premises in the building, inform them of any significant risks you find and how you will seek to reduce/control those risks which might affect the safety of their employees.
- You must provide the employer of any person from an outside organisation who is working in your premises (e.g. an agency providing temporary staff) with clear and relevant information on the risks to those employees and the preventive and protective measures taken.You must also provide those employees with appropriate instructions and relevant information about the risks to them.
- If you are not the employer but have any control of premises which contain more than one workplace, you are also responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the Order are complied with in those parts over which you have control.
- You must consider the presence of any dangerous substances and the risk this presents to relevant persons from fire.
- You must establish a suitable means of contacting the emergency services and provide them with any relevant information about dangerous substances.
- You must provide appropriate information, instruction and training to your employees, during their normal working hours, about the fire precautions in your workplace, when they start working for you, and from time to time throughout the period they work for you.
- You must ensure that the premises and any equipment provided in connection with firefighting, fire detection and warning, or emergency routes and exits are covered by a suitable system of maintenance and are maintained by a competent person in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
- Your employees must co-operate with you to ensure the workplace is safe from fire and its effects, and must not do anything that will place themselves or other people at risk.
Have you read this far? Then you need to go just a little further;
There are five steps to a risk assessment
1. Identify fire hazards
- Sources of ignition
- Sources of fuel
- Sources of oxygen
2. Identify people at risk
- People in and around the premises
- People especially at risk
3. Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk
- Evaluate the risk of a fire occurring
- Evaluate the risk to people from fire
- Remove or reduce fire hazards
- Remove or reduce the risks to people
- Detection and warning
- Fire-fighting
- Escape routes
- Lighting
- Signs and notices
- Maintenance
4. Record, plan, inform, instruct and train
- Record significant finding and action taken
- Prepare an emergency plan
- Inform and instruct relevant people; co-operate and co-ordinate with others
- Provide training
5. Review
- Keep assessment under review
- Revise where necessary
If you have not received training in fire safety and cannot identify a fire-resisting door unless it has a small sign on it stating FIRE DOOR - KEEP SHUT you cannot carry out a fire risk assessment as you are not competent to do so.
HELP: Contact Force Fire Consultants on 0800 1692 490. We have the ex fire officers who are competent having trained as operational fire fighters and as fire safety officers in a fire authority, many in the London Fire Brigade.
We can give you the help that you need at less cost than you will spend in time trying to understand what you have to do for compliance. Talk to us with no obligation and no hard sales tactics from us.
Benefits
- You get on with your business and do not spend too much time trying to work out how to comply
- We will advise you precisely what is reasonably required and not recommend more than is necessary for compliance
- We become your fire officers with help just a phone call away if you experience a problem