Fire Safety & Assessments
Fire Safety Assessments
It is a fact that most fires are preventable. As a business owner responsible for a workplace, or the owner or manager of a building which employees or members of the public can access, you have a duty to ensure the risk of fire within the building is properly assessed and that the correct fire safety procedures are put in place and followed.
What is a Fire Assessment?
A Fire Risk Assessment is a professional evaluation and identification of the fire hazards and risks within a workplace or building and follows the same approach as Health and Safety Risk Assessments. They should be regularly reviewed and can either be included within a broader risk assessment or be completed as a stand-alone process.
Based on the findings of the assessment as an employer or manager of the building you need to ensure adequate and appropriate fire safety measures are put in place to minimise the risk of injury or loss of life in the event of a fire.
These measures can include ways to prevent a fire through the management of hazardous materials, ensuring the correct fire-fighting equipment is held on site or providing training on evacuation procedures to your employees.
What are the main areas to examine in a Fire Risk Assessment?
PREVENTION
How to prevent a fire from starting through proper housekeeping rules
COMMUNICATION
Ensuring fire communications such as signage, detectors and alarms are functioning correctly
CONFINEMENT
Use of confinement such as fire doors and smoke dampers
ESCAPE
Reviewing main escape routes and ensuring they are free of obstruction
FIRE SUPPRESION
Training fire wardens with the correct training to use portable firefighting equipment
TRAINING
Training of employees and regular practice to establish improvements
Additional risk of fire from the storage, use or creation of dangerous substances
There are a number of substances found in the workplace that can cause fires or explosions ranging from flammable chemicals, engine oil, grease to dusts from wood, flour and sugar.
If you operate in an environment where you store, use or create these substances you need to ensure that you have detailed risk assessments and processes in place to manage the additional risk of fire.
Some of the points to consider include:
- Ensuring you use supplier safety data sheets as an additional source of information about which substances might be flammable
- Keeping ignition sources such as naked flames or sparks apart from substances that burn such as vapour or dust
- Maintaining good housekeeping to avoid the build-up of rubbish or dust that could either start a fire or make one worse
Our team has considerable experience of working with industries where there is an increased risk of fire, contact us for a no obligation chat to find out more.
Fire Assessment Case Study
All Things Web® is a Marketing Agency based in the Cotswolds who moved premises and required a Fire Assessment of their new premises
How Sureteam can Help
Outsourcing your fire assessment to a specialist and experienced team will not only give you peace of mind that you are fully compliant with relevant legislation but also ensure you have robust mechanisms in place to protect your team and those that come into your premises in the event of a fire.
We can provide tailored support to meet your needs including:
- Consultancy and advice
- Fire Risk Assessments and reviews
- Provision of Fire Safety supplies
We can also provide Fire Safety training to ensure that all your employees fully understand your fire safety procedures:
Our trainer led courses, delivered in person or remotely (via video link) include:
We can also offer online Fire Safety courses via our Healthy Working E-learning suite providing a cost effective, online solution.
More information on all of our fire safety training can be located here.
Give us a call
Our team are on hand for any advice you need give us a call on 01666 503686 to discuss your health and safety needs. With Sureteam, you have got it covered.
Frequently Asked Questions
It very much depends on the level of risk involved. For low-risk properties or businesses it is 1 for every 50 employees. For those operating with a higher risk of fire it is 1 in 20.
We can help advise on this as well as relevant Fire Safety procedures and processes.
Give our team a call on 01666 503686 and see how we can help.
It is always advisable to have every member of staff carry out a basic level of fire safety training – and we offer an online E-learning course for this which can be cost effectively and easily rolled out to everyone.
For Fire Marshalls and Employers courses such as the Highfield Level 2 Award in Fire Safety (RQF) are key, giving knowledge of their duties and emergency procedures.
We can put bespoke training packages together for your team – give our specialist team a call on 01666 503686.
Yes, we can provide a whole range of Health and Safety support from Audits and Assessments through to complete consultancy covering all areas from COSHH and CDM through to Manual Handing and First Aid.
Give our team a call on 01666 503686 to find out how they could help.
More Resources
Seeking further advice and support, why not take a look at our Resources section with toolbox talks, HSE publications and useful links or read our latest blog post for advice from our team
