Fire risk assessment

If you are responsible for non-domestic premises you may need to carry out a fire risk assessment. This is required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Your risk assessment must identify and control all the hazards presented to the occupants of the building by fire. If you employ five or more people you must write down the findings of the risk assessment. It is best practice for anyone who has responsibility for a building where people gather to carry out such a risk assessment and act on the results. Your Risk assessment should be reviewed regularly to make sure that any changes made to the building don’t have an impact on the fire safety of the building.

Fire extinguishers

The Fire Service doesn’t sell fire extinguishers or fire blankets. If you contact a reputable supplier of fire fighting equipment they will advise you on the most suitable equipment for your application. It may be for example that a fire blanket would be better. Any equipment used should conform to British Standard 5306 or Euro Norm (EN) 3.

Fire fighting is a potentially dangerous activity and should only be attempted by individuals who have attended a formal training course run by competent, experienced instructors. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service have a commercial training section that can offer such courses. Find out more here

Means of escape in the event of fire

The principle on which means of escape provisions are based is that the time available for escape (an assessment of the length of time between the fire starting and it making the means of escape from the workplace unsafe) is greater than the time needed for escape (the length of time it will take everyone to evacuate once a fire has been discovered and warning given).

Regardless of the location of a fire, once people are aware of it they should be able to proceed safely along a recognisable escape route, to a place of safety. In order to achieve this, it may be necessary to protect the route, i.e. by providing fire-resisting construction. A protected route may also be necessary in workplaces providing sleeping accommodation or care facilities.

The means of escape is likely to be satisfactory if your workplace is fairly modern and has had building regulation approval or if it has been found satisfactory following a recent inspection by the fire authority (and in each case you have not carried out any significant material or structural alterations or made any change to the use of the workplace). However, you should still carry out a risk assessment to ensure that the means of escape remains adequate.

Emergency Lighting for escape routes

All escape routes, including external ones, must have sufficient lighting for people to see their way out safely. Emergency escape lighting may be needed if areas of the workplace are without natural daylight or are used at night.

Where you decide there is insufficient light, you will need to provide some form of emergency lighting. Emergency lighting needs to function not only the complete failure of the normal lighting, but also on a localised failure if that would present a hazard.

Emergency escape lighting should:

• Indicate the escape route clearly
• Provide illumination along escape routes to allow safe movement towards the final exits
• Ensure that fire alarm call points and fire-fighting equipment can be readily located

In addition to emergency escape lighting, it may be necessary to provide other forms of emergency lighting for safety reasons, for example to ensure that manufacturing processes can be shut down safely.

Lighting units should be places as low as possible but at least two meters above floor level. You may need to consider alternative mounting arrangements in areas where smoke could accumulate and make the lighting ineffective.

Where it is considered that an electrical emergency lighting system is required, the system should be installed in accordance with the British Standard 5266 part 1. you should seek the advice of a competent person who specialises in the installation of these systems.

Emergency escape and fire exit signs

Emergency escape routes and exit doors, which are not in common use, should be clearly indicated, as appropriate, by suitable signs. However, in certain circumstances, such as places of public assembly, you should indicate all exit doors. All signs should be in positions where they can be seen clearly. These signs must take the form of a pictogram, which may incorporate a directional arrow. The sign can also be supplemented by words such as “Fire Exit”

All fire safety signs must comply with the relevant requirements of the Health and Safety (signs and signals) Regulations 1996.

Fire Warning

In small buildings or small open areas, the means of raising the alarm may be simple. For instance, where all employees work near to each other, a shouted warning FIRE! by the person discovering the fire may be all that is needed. But you will need to be satisfied that the warning can be heard and understood throughout the workplace, including toilets.

Where it cannot be guaranteed that a shout will be heard, a manually operated sounder (such as a rotary gong or hand bell) or a simple manual call point, combined with a bell, battery and charger may be suitable. However, you must ensure that any manually operated system is positioned so that it can be reached in sufficient time to alert everyone in the workplace, without exposing the operator to danger.

In larger buildings, a suitable electrically operated fire warning system, with manual call points positioned both on exit routes and adjacent to final exits, should be installed. This should have sufficient sounders for the warning to be clearly heard from anywhere in the workplace. The sound used as a fire warning should be distinct from other sounds in the workplace and, where background noise levels are high or an employee has a hearing impairment, it may also be necessary to install a visual alarm such as a distinctive flashing or rotating light.

Regulations relating to upholstered furniture

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 require that all new furniture sold in this country must display a label showing that it is flame retardant. This means that a lighted match will not ignite the item of furniture if it is in contact with the covering. Unfortunately, the regulations do not apply to second hand or older furniture. Consumers should look for the labels when buying furniture and avoid any items that do not have them.

The regulations also apply to people who hire out furniture, including the letting of accommodation (e.g. holiday homes and residential lettings). For more information on this subject contact your local Trading Standards Department

The Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act places a requirement for buildings to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. However when designing buildings to give access to all you should always consider how you would evacuate all the occupants of the building in the event of a fire. If you are the responsible person for your building you must make plans to evacuate all occupants of the building yourself. It is not acceptable to provide a refuge and wait for the Fire Service to evacuate the less able.