FIRE SAFETY & DISASTER RECOVERY REDUCING THE RISK Jerry Hill, Safety, Health and Environment Consultant for
NatWest Mentor outlines the fire safety duties that fall on the shoulders of the FM.
The responsibility for fire safety in business or other non-domestic premises often rests with a site’s facilities manager but can also sit with the occupying employer, the building’s owner, a managing agent or risk assessor. Within shared premises it’s therefore important to work together to ensure this duty is suitably managed.
There are a number of essential areas to cover, which start with a fire risk assessment of the premises being carried out and reviewed regularly. Your local fire and rescue authority can often give you advice, but they will not carry out risk assessments. This can either be done internally, with the help of a standard fire safety risk assessment guide, or by an appointed professional risk assessor. If you go down the latter route, ensure you choose an assessor who is accredited with the likes of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE) or Fire Industry Association training and ideally named on a professional register such as the IFE, Institute of Fire Safety Managers or the Institute of Fire Prevention Officers; the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register is another useful marker.
One of the most highly-regarded and accredited schemes, launched in 2012, is the UK Accreditation Service accredited third party scheme by BAFE SP205-1, developed for organisations that provide Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment services for others. It was designed to give assurance about the quality and relevance of the services being provided to those commissioning fire risk assessments and weed out the cowboy operators who unfortunately do exist.
The issues identified in a fire risk assessment must then be
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maintained. However, they could help contain the rapid spread of a fire, giving people more time to evacuate in the event of an incident. Regular attention of fire doors is therefore vital, as people’s lives can literally depend on it.
The process includes ensuring there is an approved certification mark in place, to guarantee a fire door is a genuine fire door. It’s also important to check the gaps around the top and sides of the door are tight enough to limit the spread of a fire. They should be consistently less than 4mm when the door is closed. The gap under the door can be slightly larger, up to 8mm, but ideally you should not see light under a fire-door. Intumescent seals should also be put in place around the door or frame and regularly checked to ensure they’re intact and not damaged. These are made of a substance that swells as a result of heat exposure and is designed to stop smoke passing through doors.
“FIRE DOORS ARE A CRUCIAL FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE.”
shared with staff or their representatives and backed up by a set of appropriate fire safety measures, including an emergency plan and training for colleagues.
Fire door checks are another core safety responsibility; they are a crucial first line of defence in many fires, yet they are often neglected and can commonly be found propped open, damaged or badly
Hinges on any fire doors must also be inspected to ensure they are all firmly fixed and have no missing or broken screws. The doors must also close properly, shutting firmly onto the latch. I would advise anyone testing this to hold the fire door open fully then release it – if it fails to close completely you have a problem that needs to be addressed.
While the rules regarding fire safety vary somewhat in Scotland and Northern Ireland what I’ve set out above is all common sense practice wherever you might be based within the UK.
Fortunately, fires in the work place are relatively rare but taking suitable precautions can help ensure you will limit the damage to both people and property if they do occur.
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