Mar
29
Fire Safety Audit, Our First Fire Safety Audit
March 29, 2011 | 2 Comments
Our first Fire Safety Audit under the new Fire Risk Assessment laws was carried out in March 2009.
I’m not an expert in fire regulations, if you need to know about fire regulations just get in touch with your fire inspector he’s there to help you and at no cost what so ever.
What I do know something about is producing a Fire Risk Assessment and having two Fire Safety Audits carried out on our building. The first as I said in March 2009 and the second just recently on 23 March 2011.
Enter your email address on the right to download our Fire Risk Assessment Procedure that’s been given the thumbs up by our Fire Inspector and will enable you to create your own F.R.A.
Three pieces of information we can pick up on right away.
Even though the Fire Risk Assessment law was past in 2005 and introduce in 2006 our first Fire Safety Audit was three years after the law was introduce; which I would imagine was because of the time it took to cover all the buildings that came under the law in each council controlled area. Our second Audit was in March 2011 which I’ll go into in my next post.
- The inspection is called a Fire Safety Audit.
- It looks as though the Audits will be carried out every two years unless they introduce high and low risk properties in which case it may change.
- Which is not so obvious as only I know that it was not the same Fire Inspector who carried out the second Fire Safety Audit.
More about the third point when I address the second audit.
The Out Come
So here are the changes I carried out after the first audit:
- Our main means of escape, in-case of a fire, as in most cases is our stairs and landings which should be free of any kind of obstruction.
Our landings are quite large, more square than just a single passage. We kept a set of old pine draws on the top landing that encroached slightly into the entrance of one of the rooms, sounds odd but every one use to comment on these lovely old pine draws.
It was suggested by the Fire Inspector that we think about what could happen in the event of a fire.
When we put them on the landing I was thinking will it inhabit people entering the room; the Fire Inspector was thinking what will happen when some one is running out of the room into a smoked filled staircase and they run into the draws.The draws where removed.
- We striped the original pitch pine doors, from 1872, in all our rooms; and brought them up to half hour fire resistant by installing intumescent strips and coating the room side of the door with intumescent varnish; result lovely old striped pine fire doors.
The fire inspector looked them over and suggested I think about renewing the kitchen door for a up to-date purpose-built fire door because it is the most important fire door in the building, enclosing a number of possible sources of ignition, grill, oven, microwave ect.We replaced the door.
- He then mentioned what he regarded as something that is rife in a great deal of different types of buildings and that was pinning doors back.
People close doors because the Fire Inspectors coming and when he leaves they pin them back again.
I must hold my hands up here, only two doors, our sitting room and dinning room; with all the coming and going in these two areas we pin them back
until where locking up for the night. He went on to show me a battery operated device designed to hold open a fire door safely and legally that automatically releases the door on hearing the fire alarm.The best thing to come out of the audit.
We fitted them to both doors, which was really easy, they work very well and for peace of mind alone their great.
- Our main exit/entrance is the front door with a hallway that runs straight through the building to a back door.
The fire inspector noticed there was a mortise lock, with a key in, and two bolts top and bottom on the back door. He asked whether we left the key in the door at all times, I said yes.
He suggested I might want to think about what would happen if an old lady was trying to get out and couldn’t manage the key or the key went missing. He mentioned there was a product on the market called a thumb catch
which is a lock that is fit into a door like a engage sign on a loo door that just turns left and right to open and lock a door.You may have noticed that the Fire Inspector as been suggesting I take an other look at the situations or what do I think may happen if?
Under the new Fire Risk Assessment law that’s all their allowed to do, suggest a course of action you may want to take; not tell you what to do or make you do it; if they do that their taking on part of the responsibly
and the whole idea of a Fire Risk Assessment being created by the person responsible or owner of the building is they have full responsibility for what they enter in their Fire Risk Assessment and if there’s a fire and some one is injured or killed the full weight of the law will be applied to them and not the Fire Inspector.So what about the back door key; well I’ve stuck my neck out here; we have a precedence of the last 25 years where the key as not gone missing, we’ve been non smoking from day one and now it’s law, there’s also a security issue with removing the bolts, also any older person who are on there own are given a room on the ground floor next to the door in question.
So in this case we chose to go for higher security.
That was the result of our first audit, which was weighted towards us having to replace, renew or change thing around; all for the good we do live ion the building to and fire can and does kill.
The most resent Audit was more weighted towards saving us time and giving us some good advice.
Which I’ll let you know the out come in my next post.
Nov
3
Fire Risk Assessment Training
November 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
Fire Risk Assessments for Larger Businesses
For larger businesses with a number of staff (as low as five) it’s better to appoint a fire warden with in the business to produce a Fire Risk Assessment which will save you a lot of money and also give you piece of mind.
There’s plenty of companies out there with nationwide teams of experts in fire safety, consulting and course instructors, able to provide businesses and organizations with access to a professional and highly experienced fire safety consultant in order for businesses to be able to fully and effectively comply with the requirements of the Fire Safety Order, as well as ensuring that all fire safety measures in place are appropriate, effective and sufficient.
Fire safety consultants experts and assessors are able to provide a comprehensive audit of existing fire safety measures as well as providing a detailed list of recommendations for risk management which are fully up to date and in line with the very latest regulations and fire safety requirements.
Fire training companies are able to provide a fire safety consultant who will be able to visit the business’s site and carry out a full and comprehensive audit and report. Typically this will last at least half a day, and will cover a range of fire safety aspects including fire prevention, fire safety management, fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers, fire doors, escape routes, staff training, action plans and record keeping. They’ll be able to provide companies and businesses with a fully experienced and highly trained fire safety consultant who can help to provide the evidence required to demonstrate that the business or organization is fully compliant with current fire safety legislation, as well as detailed information relating to any areas where amendments, changes, alterations or improvements need to be implemented.
Create Your Own Fire Risk Assessment
That said you can nominate a fire warden and invite you local Fire Brigade Inspector down to lease with your fire warden to produce a Fire Risk Assessment at no cost at all.
That’s is the new fire inspectors (late fire officer) roll to help you produce your fire risk assessment, he wont tell you what to do, only advise you of fire risk situations that may want reviewing what you do after that is really up to you, you are responsible. The difference is, if he tells you what to do he will be allocated a portion of responsibility for your fire risk assessment.
Not to sure were to start; go to Fire Risk Assessments for a free copy of our Fire Risk Assessment procedure that as been past by our fire inspector and will enable you to produce your own fire risk assessment with out having to spend a penny.
Aug
18
Do you have a Fire Risk Assessment?
August 18, 2009 | 2 Comments
photo credit: Eduardo Hulshof
Do you have a Fire Risk Assessment? No but I’ll get one off the Fire Inspector.
Fire Risk Assessment Procedure
So the doors where re-hung and everything was ready ten days before the local Fire Inspector was due on the 18 February 09.
I thought I’d better have a look at the letter I was sent to see if there was anything I’d missed. Once I had recognised that the three fire doors might not be quite up to standard everything else was shelved while I put them right, including the letter from the Fire Inspector.
In the back of my mind I knew that even though fire certificates had been abolished I had carried on doing the same checks as if it was still in place so things could’nt be that bad.
I glanced over the letter and the opening line read.
“You must have a Fire Risk Assessment”
Yes right, he’s going to give me a fire risk assessment and I’ll probably have to maintain it, ok.
I was still thinking of the old regime and I must admit a little of what had happened in the past kept me on those lines.
We had been receiving visits from Fire Officers once a year for the last 18 years and about every two years and on a few occasions every year it would be a different officer and each one had a different take on things.
That shouldn’t be there, to some officers, was ok with others,
“We’re not interested in your private accommodation”.
I was told for a number of years; only to be told by another officer.
“O yes we must see the whole building”
After that visit we had to install, a fire alarm call point with audible bell in our bed room.
It gets a little amusing, serous, and embarrassing over the next couple of posts.