How to do a Fire Risk Assessment
Broadly speaking, assessments are conducted in four key steps:
Identify the fire hazards
Cigarettes, matches and lighters Candles, or gas or liquid-fuelled open-flame equipment Cooking equipment
Identify people at risk.
Identify people at risk, To identify those at risk in case of a fire, you must look at where your employees are working
Evaluate, remove or reduce the risks
After identifying the fire hazards, you must find ways to remove the risk, that's when our Fire Assesmen team will educate you on
Record your findings, prepare an emergency plan and provide training.
What happens if you don’t have a fire risk assessment?
Any fire risk assessment needs to be compliant with PAS 79. It needs to be carried out by a competent person. As it is a legal requirement to have a fire risk assessment, if you don’t have one or if it is not fully compliant you leave yourself open to prosecution and fines.
How we complete a Fire Risk Assessment
- We will identify the people that are at risk in the building
- We would identify the Fire hazards (sources of ignition, fuel & oxygen)
- Evaluate the Risk and look for any existing Fire Safety measures to see if they are adequate
- Record Fire Safety Risk Assessment Information such as emergency plans, provide training etc
- Review the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment and keep this under review and revise if necessary.
The Benefits of having a Fire Risk Assessment
A business with good Fire Safety Management is less likely to suffer from a fire and the subsequent closure, lost production, personal injury claims and lost stock. If your business is badly damaged or destroyed in a fire, could you cope financially to reopen and pay the employees’ wages during the rebuild?
Firstly, having a positive Fire Safety Culture. This can be seen by the employees during the Fire Risk Management from testing the fire alarms and emergency lighting to them seeing the extinguisher engineer in completing the annual maintenance. Staff will see their welfare being considered and protected by the employer.
If your insurance company can see that you as an employer were proactive in terms of Fire Safety Management, they are more likely to pay in full for the insurance claim!
Frequently asked questions
Most frequent questions and answers
A fire risk assessment is an organized and methodical look at your premises and the activities carried out there. It assesses the likelihood of a fire starting, the cause of that fire and the resulting harm that could come to those in and around the premises.
The responsible person is identified under article 3 of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO) as:-
- In relation to a workplace, the employer, if the workplace is to any extent under his control;
- The person who has control of the premises (as occupier or otherwise) in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking (for profit or not); or
- The owner, where the person in control of the premises does not have control in connection with the carrying on by that person of a trade, business or other undertaking.
To provide an assessment of the risk to life from fire in the premises, and where appropriate, to make recommendations to reduce those risks to life.
A fire risk assessment does not provide protection from a fire, but acting on the recommendations can help reduce the chances of a fire occurring and should a fire occur reduce the impact on relevant persons
