Getting A Risk Assessment For Fire in the UK
As an employer, landlord or facilities manager, it is your legal responsibility to keep everyone who uses your premises safe. A fire risk assessment is an important part of this because it identifies what might cause a fire so you can take steps to prevent one, as well as prompting you to take steps to make evacuating the building in the event of a fire safe, easy and quick if a fire were to occur. If you are the responsible person, having a regular fire risk assessment review is important to keep your fire safety standards up to date.
Why Do You Need Fire Risk Assessments in the UK?
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO), it is an employer’s legal responsibility to take precautions to reduce the risk of fire on your premises. This means reducing the risk of fire and ensuring that if one does break out it can’t spread, providing a safe means of escape, as well as the provision of fire detection and warning measures, clear instructions and training.
A fire risk assessment will identify all of the potential fire hazards on your premises, and make recommendations about removing or reducing those risks. It will also look at your emergency plan, assessing your evacuation strategy which will take into account the people who are particularly at risk.
What Happens in a Fire Risk Assessment?
Your fire risk assessment will be undertaken by fire specialists who will spend time on your premises doing a detailed analysis of all the fire risks, identifying people who are particularly at risk (for example those with disabilities or special needs). They will then make recommendations on the actions you need to take to minimise those risks and protect both people and property. As well as provide advice to the responsible person on the next steps needed to be taken to ensure fire safety on your property.
Identifying Fire Safety Risks
Every business and industry sector has different types of fire risks which means every risk assessment will be looking at different criteria.
During your fire risk assessment, fire safety experts will compile a detailed analysis of all potential hazards and risks across your business premises, making recommendations about the necessary actions you may need to take in order to minimise these risks.
How Do Fires Start?
A fire can only occur if it has three components. The first element is a source of ignition, such as a faulty electrical plug socket sparking. The second element is fuel, which can be materials like paper, chemicals, or gases. The third and final ingredient required for a fire to ignite is oxygen.
Therefore, a crucial aspect of a fire risk assessment is to identify scenarios where there may be potential ignition sources and keep fuel sources well away from them. For example, to reduce the risk of electrical sparks, you need to PAT test all electrical devices and keep paper away from plug sockets and electrical equipment.
Fire and rescue service risk assessors will consider the needs of your employees, contractors and visitors if there was a fire emergency. It is important for fire and rescue service to be aware of individuals who may require additional assistance during an emergency, whether it’s because they have a disability, are unfamiliar with the premises, or there are language barriers that could hinder understanding of evacuation instructions.
The fire risk assessment will ensure that your premises are equipped with adequate fire detection and warning systems that cover all areas of the premises. In the event of a fire, individuals in even the most remote areas of the building must be alerted to the situation.
Additionally, the fire professional risk assessor during assessment will evaluate the availability of fire doors and fire escapes. Fire doors can help contain fires in specific areas of the building, with escape routes allowing people more time to evacuate safely. Your fire risk assessor will thoroughly assess these aspects to enhance the overall fire safety of your office building.
Fire Risk Assessment Checklist
The government’s Fire Safety Risk Assessment: 5-step checklist recommends your fire risk assessment takes into account the following points:
1: Fire Hazards
Looking at anything where there is a risk of starting a fire, such as electrical equipment, cooking, smoking, heating, arson, work being done by contractors etc.
2: Identify People At Risk
You need to take into account how many people work on the premises when planning a fire risk assessment, whether any employees have disabilities, and whether any will be responsible person working on their own.
3: Evaluate And Act
You need to consider what would happen if you have to evacuate the building so you can take appropriate action now to ensure potential risks are dealt with. This means taking into account fire safety measures the number of floors in your building, fire alarms, fire exits and other escape routes, emergency lighting and availability of fire extinguishers in the risk assessment. If you occupy a historic building there may be a particular fire risk giving you additional challenges to identify potential fire hazards.
4: Record, Plan and Train
Keeping a written record of fire safety precautions, ensuring extinguishers are regularly serviced, fire doors are clearly marked and never propped open, exits are always kept clear etc, as well as ensuring you have enough trained fire marshals and staff know what they need to do in the event of an emergency, which means conducting regular fire drills.
5: Review
After the initial fire risk assessment, you will need a regular review of your fire safety and update your fire risk assessments wherever necessary.
Contact Us to Arrange Your Fire Risk Assessment
Implementing effective fire prevention is not only a legal requirement, it is also the right thing to do. We cover the whole UK so get in touch to arrange a fire risk assessment now. As we offer five different safety assessments, talk to us about our 5 1 Multi-Assessment 10% Discount which covers:
- Fire Safety Risk Assessment
- Health & Safety
- Legionella
- Asbestos
- PAT Testing
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