Fire Risk Assessments

Fires can not only damage your premises, but they can put lives at risk too. In order to protect your business and its staff, a fire risk assessment should be carried out to reduce the risk of a fire breaking out and put preventative measures in place too. According to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a fire risk assessment must be carried out within all businesses and organisations. This blog will explain to you why and how they are carried out.

The assessment in simple terms is an in-depth inspection of your premises to determine the fire risk level. It’ll focus on identifying potential fire hazards and recommended safety measures that should be implemented, especially those for legal requirements.

Key Parts:

• Documentation

Your premise needs up-to-date and accurate documentation, including fire safety reports and equipment certificates for example for your fire doors.

• Escape routes and evacuation

Your escape routes need to be clear and your employees need to be trained on how to evacuate should the worst happen.

• Fire safety equipment

The assessment will check the number, location, and conditions of your fire safety equipment, like your fire alarms and extinguishers. It’ll check if they’re installed correctly and if they are still in good working order.

• Risky materials or equipment

Electrics, lights, and materials in the premises should be checked to see if they are a fire risk.

• Building

The building’s structure itself will be assessed as its size, layout, and materials.

• Create and action a fire safety plan

This plan should outline how you are going to action fire safety measures, from training and procedures to evacuation routes and more.

• Written records

These records should be detailed so you have an accurate record of your business’s fire safety.

• Review

A fire risk assessment needs to be reviewed and updated annually, or when changes happen to your business, like the building’s structure, purpose, or people, so it’s as accurate as possible.

A building’s fire risk assessment is the responsible person’s responsibility. Therefore, many businesses like to have a qualified risk assessor to do this to ensure it’s done accurately and meets requirements. If you don’t meet the legislation, it’s a legal requirement! Your business could be at risk from fines, so it’s important to get your fire risk assessment right. As well as this, being on top of your business’s fire safety will help to avoid fires and safeguard your team.

How we can help

At Fire Stoppers, we can carry out a full site inspection and detailed fire risk assessment to identify the steps to improve your fire safety. We’ll record this, and explain it to you, including the actions we’ve done and what actions are needed. In fact, we’re BAFE accredited and on tier 3 of the IFSM National Fire Risk Assessor Register. To find out more about this service, click here.

For more fire safety tips and advice, click here.