FIRE RISK ASSESSMENT
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, commonly known as the Fire Safety Order (FSO) is a legal requirement for almost all UK businesses to have a written Fire Risk Assessment prepared, and made available onsite, for inspection by a local authority fire service Inspecting Officer.
IDENTIFYING FIRE HAZARDS
A Fire Risk Assessment involves the evaluation of property to identify the fire hazards or potential fire hazards in a building and to then determine the overall risk to relevant persons in and around that building.
The general guidelines are that if your organisation employs five or more people; your premises are licensed under an enactment or an ‘alterations notice’ is in force, you must record the significant findings of the assessment (in the format of a fire risk assessment).
HELP & GUIDANCE
To support businesses with this potentially complicated and daunting task, the Department of Communities & Local Government (DCLG) issued general guidance documents.
Links to these guidance documents are available on this website (see Fire Safety Publications), to assist those with fire safety responsibilities.
All but the very smallest of businesses require a fire risk assessment but a simple breakdown shown below covers the basic profile of business activities:
- Offices & Shops
- Pubs, clubs, theatres & restaurants
- Educational premises
- Leisure centres of all types
- Community halls & similar premises
- Places of worship
- Houses of multiple-occupancy (HMO’s)
- Hotels, hostels & similar premises
- Hospitals, GP practices and alike
- Premises that provide residential care
- Factories and warehouses
- Industrial units and complexes
- Blocks of flats (common areas)
- Stable blocks and similar
The more complicated and complex the property, the greater the technical guidance and understanding of fire safety principles and theories are required.
Although a huge number of ‘local acts’ have recently been removed to ease the fire risk assessment process, there still remains numerous codes of practice, technical memorandums and British Standards to support the DCLG guides which can be a challenging task.
For more information concerning the requirements of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 click here
Contact Us
If you feel you require help and support in any areas of fire safety, training or management for your business please feel free to contact us.
t: 01483 671 087
e: info@hurtwoodfire.co.uk