Amongst the points you will need to cover are;

Control combustibles and inflammables materials and safe storage within the work place.

Check Wiring and Electrical Appliances regularly for safety, correct fuses used etc.

Clear rubbish and combustible materials from site

Allow smoking in designated areas only

Fire Exits are there sufficient and do they lead to places of safety. Are they unlocked?

Escape Routes must be kept clear, and free of obstructions

Building must be properly maintained so that stairways, passageways are safe.

Signage indicating Fire Exits and Escape Routes

Emergency Lighting for escape routes and exits, install and check regularly

Evacuation plans to be made and drills rehearsed regularly

Fire Wardens to be trained

Insurers to be consulted for their advice and requirements

Do you need an Automatic Fire Detection and Alarms system

It must be maintained and tested regularly

When making changes to the building, ensure that the Fire Alarm or escape routes or exits are not compromised

Is the Fire Alarm connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre for calling out the Brigade automatically (recommended)

Are there sufficient Fire Extinguishers and Blankets on site, are they working and maintained regularly

Are they ways of compartmentalising buildings to stop the spread of Fire throughout the building, think Fire Doors etc.

Have you prepared an emergency plan and communicated it to all staff.

Review all such matters and keep your risk assessment up to date.
Professionally Prepared Fire Risk Assessments.
For larger or higher risk premises, maybe spread over different levels, with large numbers of people to evacuate quickly to safety, then it is recommended that a professionally qualified person under take this task on your behalf.

A fee will be payable for their services but they will produce a document which is effective.
This is a chargeable service but can be arranged.

Fire Safety Legislation

The new Safety Fire Legislation is called the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
and this statutory instrument has the effect of sweeping away all previous legislation governing the work place, places of business, places to which the public have access and Multi Occupied Dwellings (HMO’s), and bring it all under this one instrument of parliament.

A copy can be viewed at www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20051541.htm

Points to note:

Fire Certificates no longer valid

The ‘Responsible Person’, normally the person in charge of the premises must;
Make a written ‘risk assessment’ , and keep it up to date. From this he must make the decisions about Fire Safety for all persons in or on the premises in question.

In larger premises then a professionally written assessment with advice would seem the way forward but for more straight forward premises then the following website maybe of help.

www.fpa-fireriskassessment.com/checklist.htm

This new piece of legislation make breaches a ‘criminal offence’, so it is no longer a ‘civil matter’, your are now personally liable and your freedom can be risk.

Such a process will most probably result in a decision being made that the building must be of a suitable fire resistant construction, is in good repair and that some sort of Automatic Fire Detection System is a must, and going hand in hand with that is a requirement for an Emergency Lighting system, extinguishers and maybe other on site Fire Fighting Equipment, all in all a complete package.

Whilst the compliance with the new Fire Safety Order is enforceable via criminal prosecution, it should be remembered that its primary purpose is to save life and prevent injury to people in the event of Fire.

Insurers

But what about the building, its contents the future of your business?, Your Insurers obviously have an interest, as they are on risk and will insist that you take all proper precaution to minimise their exposure to risk as far as possible, they should be a party to this decision making process.

They may want not only an adequate Fire Detection System to alert people to fire to allow an early evacuation but they may also want it communicated automatically as soon as possible to the Brigade via a BT Redcare signalled alert, so that whilst you are evacuating the premises the Brigade are on their way.

Because of these differing risks there are a variety of configurations of Automatic Fire Detection and Alarm systems designated by L,P and M codes with sub categories to denote the type of coverage the system should have, and they are derived from BS5839: 2002 which is the main standard relating to the fitting of such systems.

The Government Guide for your type of business can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1162101

Please note:

This site is purely a Marketing tool, not a technical reference site and the information contained therein is for Marketing purposes only, and no responsibility is taken or implied as to the accuracy of Regulatory and Legislative content referred to within. Where British Standards or the Fire Safety Order are referred to then the actual documents themselves should be consulted.