INTRODUCTION AND GUIDANCE

In accordance with The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (England and Wales) and using the category’s listed below a Fire Risk Assessment of your premises should be conducted.
 

• Section 2:-    Fire Alarm & Emergency Lighting
  
  

• Section 3:-    Assembly Point
  
  

• Section 4:-    Signage
  
  

• Section 5:-    Means of Escape:- Escape Routes, Fire Doors, Fire Resistance, Travel Distance & Miscellaneous
  
  

• Section 6:-    Prevention & Management:- Training, Calling the Fire Service, Fire Drills, Fire Wardens/Marshals, Fire Extinguishing Media
  
  

• Section 7:-    Life Risk:- Housekeeping & Miscellaneous, Consequences to people in the event of a fire
  
  

• Section 8:-    Ignition Source:- Equipment, Heating & Lighting, Smoking, Cooking & Miscellaneous
  
  

• Section 9:-    Combustible Materials:- Substances harmful to health, Acids, Explosives
  
  

• Section 10:- Information for the Fire Service:- Site Information & Hazards to Fire fighters
  
  

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulations made under it cover the provision of fire precautions which are intended to prevent the outbreak of a fire or minimise the consequences should one occur. Matters falling within the scope of the Act include the storage of flammable materials, the control of flammable vapours, standards of housekeeping, safe systems of work, the control of sources of ignition and the provision of appropriate training. These precautions are enforced by inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires you to:-

• Carry out a fire risk assessment of your building (you must consider all of your tenants and other people who may be affected by a fire in the building and you are required to make adequate provision for any disabled people with special needs who use or may be present at your premises);
  
  

• Identify the significant findings of the risk assessment and the details of anyone who might be especially at risk in case of fire (these must be recorded);
  
  

• Provide and maintain such fire precautions as are necessary to safeguard those who use your building; and
  
  

• Provide information, instruction and training to your tenants about the fire precautions in your building.
  
  

The risk assessment will help you decide the nature and extent of the general fire precautions which you will need to provide.

Six other legal duties you need to know and comply with are:-

• Where it is necessary to safeguard the safety of tenants, you must nominate people to undertake any special roles which are required under your emergency plan (you can nominate yourself for this purpose);
  
  

• You must consult your tenants (or elected representatives) about the nomination of people to carry out particular roles in connection with fire safety and about proposals for improving fire precautions;
  
  

• You must inform other tenants who also have rooms in the building of any significant risks you find which might affect the safety of their tenants – and co-operate with them about the measures proposed to reduce/control these risks.
  
  

• If you are not an owner but have any control of premises which contain more than one building, you are responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the Fire Regulations are complied with in those parts you have control over.
  
  

• You must establish a suitable means of contacting the emergency services, and ensure that they can be easily called;
  
  

• The law requires your tenants to co-operate with you to ensure the building is safe from fire and its effects, and do not do anything which will place themselves or other people at risk
  
  

Time Scales.
 

It is important therefore that this assessment is not just a paper exercise and it should be read carefully, and any recommended actions taken. Where the client feels that the cost of the recommended improvements outweighs the risk, this should be discussed with the consultant for possible alternative action.

We strongly advise that this risk assessment is reviewed on a regular basis by the ‘Responsible Person’ to keep it up to date, and, in any event, at intervals of no more than 12 months. We have provided a recommended date in section 1. This date assumes that all the ‘Action Plans’ in sections 2-10 have been taken in the time scales set. Should any alteration or actions take place prior to the review date then the assessment should be reviewed immediately. It should be noted that this risk assessment in our opinion is not complete until recommended actions have been implemented fully.

Action points are split into High (H), Medium (M) and Low (L) priority next to the individual hazards with suggested time scales in months 1, 2, or 3.

Any Action stating ‘Immediate’ requires severe steps to be taken urgently to rectify a potentially fatal situation.

Should you require further advice on any section of the assessment, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Owner and or Responsible Person.
 

The owner, or other responsible person, should ensure that the additional fire safety controls, recommendations and actions set out below are effected to bring the assessed areas up to a standard that will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of any of his tenants, any other person lawfully on the premises or any person in the immediate vicinity of the premises at risk from a fire on the premises.

Responsible Persons must, amongst other duties, provide their tenants with comprehensive and relevant information on the risks to them identified by the risk assessment, the preventative and protective measures taken and the procedures and measures in place in the event of serious and imminent danger to them.

Where relevant facts in relation to the premises were not visually apparent on the date of our inspection, we have relied upon the information and/or responses provided by or on behalf of the Tenants or other responsible person.

We have assumed that all relevant building regulations were complied with in the construction of the premises, including any extension(s), conversion(s),renovation(s) and refurbishment(s).

Unless otherwise stated, we have assumed that at the premises (i) all fire safety equipment, including fire doors and fire resistant partitions and (ii) all servicing of fire safety equipment has been installed or carried out (as the case may be) by persons competent to do so and in accordance with all applicable standards.

We have not looked in roof spaces or other hidden areas on the premises except where there was an obvious fire hazard which reasonably required further investigation.

We have assumed that information and documentation supplied to us by or on behalf of the Owner or other responsible person who has a bearing on the fire risk assessment is current, true, accurate and not misleading.

The term ‘responsible person’ has the meaning given to it in The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [and the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005.