Fire Engineering : Fire Risk Assessment

Fire Risk Assessment - Exova Warrringtonfire

With over 40 years experience, Exova Warringtonfire are widely accepted as one of the leaders in the field of fire safety in buildings

In the UK, it is a legal requirement to carry out a fire risk assessment in almost all workplaces, although in practice we know that a lot of business owners and managers are uncertain about this issue. To help solve this problem we have given a short guide below. If you have any further questions please contact us. Our contact details are at the bottom of this page.

What is a fire risk assessment?

It is a review of the fire safety aspects of the building and the fire safety management arrangements to determine whether it is safe.

Why do I need to carry one out?

Clearly every organisation has an obligation to protect the safety of their staff.On top of that, there is a legal requirement.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order was introduced in 2005 and replaced the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The Fire Safety Order requires risk assessments to be carried out of the standards of safety in all places of work.

if this isnt done, the person responsible for that building may be at risk of being prosecuted. For example, in November 2009, a top retailer was fined £400,000 and had to pay £136,000 in costs for breaches of the Fire Safety Order, so this is an important issue.

The legal issues are covered in the government web page below

Fire Safety Law

I have had a fire certificate for years. Isnt that Enough?

Fire Certificates used to be provided by the fire brigade under the Fire Precautions Act, which was replaced by the Fire Safety Order, so they are no longer relevant.

What types of buildings are covered by the Fire Safety Order?

It applies to almost all buildings where someone could be working. If there are less than 5 people working there, the assessment doesnt need to be written down, but over that it needs to be documented.

Typical buildings that are covered include offices, shops, blocks of flats (common areas only), hospitals, cinemas, care homes, railway stations, schools and public assembly buildings. This is not a comprehensive list, so if you have any queries, please contact us.

Can I do the fire risk assessment myself?

The legislation states that the assessment should be "suitable and efficient"

There are a series of government guidance documents to help. Please click on the link below for further details.

click here

Why should I use Exova Warringtonfire rather than other fire risk assessors?

A large proportion of prosecutions that happen under the Fire Safety Order are because the fire brigade dont believe that the assessments that the owners carry our meet the legal criteria of "suitable and efficient"

So, you need to be sure that it is carried out by a qualified assessor, backed by a company with the experience and expertise to guarantee that you comply with the legislation.

All of our fire risk assessors are independently certified under the Fire Risk Assessor Certification Scheme which is a third party certification scheme run by the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The scheme is the only one in the country that is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

What do I do now?

CLICK HERE to take you to the contact page where you can enter your details and we will contact you.

Alternatively, send us an email CLICK HERE TO EMAIL US or call us on 01925 646647

We look forward to hearing from you.