FIRE RISK ASSESSMENTS- MIGHT YOU BE RESPONSIBLE?
Is the ‘Responsible Person‘ aware?
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) says that a ‘Responsible Person’ must carry out, and keep up to date, a risk assessment and implement appropriate measures to minimise the risk to life and property from fire but who is the Responsible Person?
The Responsible Person is usually the managing director or the controlling manager in an occupied building or the Principal Contractor on a construction site. The duties may be discharged by another person, team or outsourced contractor but the responsibility is likely to remain with the senior team. These people are in overall charge of the health and safety of the people within their care.
The Responsible Person needs to carry out duties on the basis of competence as it’s no excuse saying you ‘didn’t know’. Typically, the responsible persons of companies and organisations buy in the highly competent services of fire risk assessors to help them identify risks and how to mitigate them. They can then monitor and manage risks on a day to day basis using appropriately trained internal people such as ‘Fire Wardens’. However, this does not discharge responsibility.
If your Fire Risk is affected by other organisations such as adjacent building owners or occupiers, the landlords and tenants of a building or the operational part of a hotel that is having an extension and the Principal Contractor, then it is important to coordinate fire risk consideration with these other parties.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) says that a ‘Responsible Person’ must carry out, and keep up to date, a risk assessment and implement appropriate measures to minimise the risk to life and property from fire but who is the Responsible Person?
The Responsible Person is usually the managing director or the controlling manager in an occupied building or the Principal Contractor on a construction site. The duties may be discharged by another person, team or outsourced contractor but the responsibility is likely to remain with the senior team. These people are in overall charge of the health and safety of the people within their care.
The Responsible Person needs to carry out duties on the basis of competence as it’s no excuse saying you ‘didn’t know’. Typically, the responsible persons of companies and organisations buy in the highly competent services of fire risk assessors to help them identify risks and how to mitigate them. They can then monitor and manage risks on a day to day basis using appropriately trained internal people such as ‘Fire Wardens’. However, this does not discharge responsibility.
If your Fire Risk is affected by other organisations such as adjacent building owners or occupiers, the landlords and tenants of a building or the operational part of a hotel that is having an extension and the Principal Contractor, then it is important to coordinate fire risk consideration with these other parties.
The senior manager and responsible persons need to ensure that sufficient resources are made available.
Fire Risk Assessment
The principles of fire risk assessment are similar to general risk assessment and include taking into account who is at risk and, key areas of risk and how to mitigate them.
With Fire Risk the key areas of risk to be eliminated, reduced or managed are
- sources of combustable materials
- sources of ignition
- the nature of people at risk
- means of giving warning
- means of escape
- means of fighting fire
The biggest problem is that although many risks are ‘obvious’, the real risks are often only realised as a result of experience and training. For example, timber framed buildings are incredibly vulnerable during construction and require extra measures. Another example is in a low risk building like a church, dust build up over an organ blower can lead to fires that start out of sight. Large wheelie bins left unlocked outside offices and workshops can be easy to catch light if cigarette ends are thrown in either accidently or on purpose.
The nature of people at risk can vary widely: If residents of an old peoples home are confined to bed on the fifth floor, it is a very different proposition to the risk of a local football club changing rooms and clubhouse when it comes to evacuation. In some instances, many more trained people would be required to help people leave a building quickly and safely. Linked to this is the use of list of employees or a visitors book in order that people may be accounted for if a building is evacuated.
Means of escape have to be appropriate to the risks faced and the people at risk. In some instances, more time to evacuate can be given by fitting more fire resistant doors and ensuring that services ducts are fully sealed between different areas or floors of a building. There are many regulations that help ensure standards are upheld including how long does it take to evacuate a full building and how far the nearest exit should be.
Once designed to be effective and appropriate to the people at risk, the warning system needs to be effective and reliable. Most buildings test alarm systems weekly but construction sites should consider doing this upon significant changes and in all cases, people should know by training, what to do when an alarm goes off. Typically this would be by Fire Wardens understanding their primary role to set an example and lead people from a building but practice fire evacuations should also help. The type of warning system needs to be fit for purpose and able to warn people in all rooms or parts of the building. On site, a manually operated klaxon or bell will be more reliable than one requiring mains power.
When a building has been evacuated and if it is safe to tackle a fire, the equipment needs to be the right sort of equipment for the job. Again, many companies outsource the inspection, maintenance and renewal of fire extinguishers, blankets and sand buckets.
Who can help?
The Fire Risk Assessment and it’s recommendations lie at the core of fire safety. Using an experienced Fire Risk Assessor is essential to making sure all likely risks are considered, the considerable legislation is taken in to account and that the measures for eliminating, reducing or managing risk are sensible and proportionate.