How to tackle Fire Risk Assessments in your Business…

So what is a Fire Risk Assessment? It is a document that is completed yearly to determine the risk of fire in a premises. It looks at all parts of the building to determine risk and the likelihood of a fire and a tragic event. It suggests ways and means to mitigate these risks to ensure ‘life safety’ is paramount and kept at the heart of each building.
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So it’s really important that all businesses with premises – no matter how big or small – have a Fire Risk Assessment carried out. In fact it is the law! In my experience so many business premises don’t have an adequate Fire Risk Assessment. This is usually due to a lack of experience, i.e usually in these cases the business owner or manager has compiled something from a template on the internet and roughly judged their building’s fire risk! It is still a requirement if doing your own assessment to ensure that you’ve had a professional training course, and that you get an outside company in to review it every 5 years.
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The other type of Risk Assessment is one generated by a professional company operating within an accredited body. This in itself does not necessarily mean that you will have covered all the bases! Sometimes these companies are linked to a fire protection company. Having personally reviewed 100’s of Fire Risk Assessments I can generally tell where such a link exists or not! Often lots of issues with equipment will be flagged for example, coincidentally also able to be rectified by said company, often missing other more important issues within the building.
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So, the only other option is an independent Fire Risk Assessor! These generally look at the risk within the building, but don’t necessarily understand the alarms or other equipment quite as well as either your Fire Protection Specialist and or the Risk Assessor linked to a Fire Protection Company.
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As you can see therefore it is a grey area! My advice would be to utilise 2 methods; first use the Fire Risk Assessor that is not linked directly to a Fire Protection Company as this will likely be unbiased. Then regularly check with your Fire Protection Specialists to ensure that your system is compliant, and any recommendations pass through your Fire Risk Assessor and get their view point.

Using both of these methods will remove the risk of being taken advantage of and incurring unnecessary cost, but also ensure your premises are safe! The best part is, it motivates you to keep on top of your duty of care as a responsible employer, helping keep your workforce and the local commuuity safe at all times!

Dave Mckeown is Director of Absolute Group– Electrical, Fire & Security Solutions for Businesses and Homes.

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