This month, Adair Lewis examines fire risk in shopping centres – a term which covers a range of locations
Shopping centres risk review
potential for fire and smoke to spread, leading to large losses. Conversely, they often have wide sterile walkways, modern fire detection and suppression systems, and high standards of fire safety management, all of which should mitigate losses. So what is the real picture? While ‘centre’ conjures up a huge area with an atrium and spacious walkways, not all are like this. Fires include many in smaller covered or enclosed groups of retail premises designated as a ‘shopping centre’ by the insurer or by fire crews attending the incident. Here, there is no accepted definition of this category of premises. Between 2009 and 2017, just 14 (2.7%) of
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the 522 large loss fires in retail premises involved shopping centres. The occurrence, just over one a year on average, suggests that while there are many small fires, few develop into major incidents. Some 42% of the fires are accidental, but 50% are
started deliberately: a significantly larger proportion than for retail premises as a whole, of which 27% result from fire setting. The data doesn’t record whether fires originated in common areas or shop units, but it is surprising that so many arson incidents occur in areas where many staff and customers will be circulating. One positive feature is that less than 7.7%, equating to just one fire in a shopping centre, were recorded as being of unknown cause. Another surprise is that is in a well populated
centre with premises monitored by security staff, and with a sophisticated fire detection and alarm system installed, over half (55%) of the fires were recorded as originating at an unknown time of day. A positive
56 JULY/AUGUST 2018
www.frmjournal.com
HEN CONSIDERING fires in shopping centres, the first thought is that they are large open buildings with a high
recognition for fire safety management of shopping centres is that no problems were encountered by fire and rescue services (FRSs) in fighting large loss fires in them. Whereas it might be expected that large fires in shopping centres would be costly, in fact the average loss per fire (£515,103) is 43% less than the average for retail premises as a whole (£737,849). The loss per square metre, however, is almost identical (£1,255m2
compared with £1,364m2
in retail premises), which tends to contradict an expectation of bigger fires in terms of area involved than in other retail premises. In fact, fires in shopping centres appear to be relatively small and involve modest losses.
Minimising the risk
At the time of the fire risk assessment (FRA), give careful consideration to the evacuation of people with a disability from individual shop units and from the common areas. Unlike a workplace, where visitors with a disability may be identified on entry and PEEPS generated, in a shopping centre there may be many people with various forms of disability, which may or may not be apparent. Every shop unit should have a plan for evacuating its premises, and this must include people with all forms of disability. If there are changes of level in a retail
unit, provision of evacuation chairs should be considered where lifts or escalators cannot be used in the event of fire. When chairs are provided, a sufficient number of staff should be present who have received practical training. The FRA should be reviewed whenever there is
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