Apr
1
Fire Risk Assessment, Our Second Fire Safety Audit
April 1, 2011 | 1 Comment
As with our first Fire Safety Audit, the Fire Inspector called by phone to make an appointment in order to carry out are second Fire Safety Audit; unlike the old fire certificate rules where the Fire Officer phoned the day befor he was due.
The call came on the 1st March for an appointment on the 23rd of March; and although not intended, because everything in your Fire Risk Assessment should be in place, it does give you over 20 days to carry out any work you may deem necessary.
again unlike the old Fire Certificate system where you had the feeling the Fire Officer was trying to catch you out.
The audit began with a thorough inspection of our Fire Risk Assessment weather that was because it was the first time this particular Inspector had visited the building before or not I’m not sure, something tells me in the future, if the same inspector calls, the main part of inspecting your Fire Risk Assessment will be the ‘Significant Findings’ section.
As it was, all was well, he then went on to view our fire alarm and fire extinguisher maintenance documents which where all up to date.
Helpful Tips from the Fire Inspector
Once the inspection was more or less over we just talked about the procedures I was using that was when he offered me a few tips
- We have a maintenance contract for our alarm system, however I set up a rotor to test each individual smoke detector, bell & emergency lighting unit.
The fire inspector told me because I have a maintenance contract I only have to keep a record of checking my break glass call points and the emergency lighting units once a month,
the rest off the system is the responsibility of the maintenance contractors . - If you have an employee their supposed to know what to do in the event of a fire so make sure your staff fire notices are in the right place,
the staff no the procedures and most of all I get them to sign to say they’ve received training.
- And here’s one from me. You must have a maintenance contract to check your Fire Extinguishers; you’ll find every so often they have to be refilled.
Ask the maintenance man if he finds he as to change the water in an extinguisher could he show a member of staff how to use one.
Mine was happy to do so.
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.
Sep
28
Fire Risk Assessment | Fire Safety Audit
September 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment
“You’ll have to pull down that beautiful molded Victorian ceiling and put ½” plaster board on to conform to the fire regulations”.
Before I go any further I would like to state that I think the relatively new laws on having a Fire Risk Assessment produced by the owner of a building or by any person that has some level of control of a premises, there buy removing responsibility for making sure all fire precautions are in place from the then Fire Officers, now Fire Inspectors, is absolutely, 100% correct.
That said the advice that is given by the Fire Inspectors must be collectively identical in identical situations that arises and that the whole extent of options be presented.
I’ve read one or to complaints on the internet with regard to businesses in different parts of the country; having to solve the same fire precaution problem but in totally different way’s and at totally different levels.
The opening statement was conveyed to me by a Fire Officer’s assistant with the fire officer stood beside him making notes. He then went into why it had to happen; the point he made was a very good one and the way it was explained to me anyone would have agreed it had to happen.
It was only that the ceiling was so ornate (1872) and I was in the very early stages of developing a guest house that I said;
“I couldn’t”
“I couldn’t bring down that beautiful ceiling; I’ll do something else with the building”
This kind of flummoxed them a little and prompted them to come up with an alternative, which was go to the room above and put down hard board over the floor boards to create an ½ hour ceiling below.
That is the type of thing that was happening prior to the 2006 introduction of Fire Risk Assessments; the latter cost around £80, replacing the ceiling would have cost a whole lot more.
It still appears to happening today. I was told by our Fire Inspector that he will not tell me what to do, but he will offer me advice. This came in the form of being asked what I though of a situation, having identified a potential problem, and it progressed with, what do you think could happen? How can you put it right?
So I thought it might be a good idea to have some where to record these different problems, how the problems are solved and most importantly what advice you received from your Fire Inspector.
It should be really helpful to all businesses, having some where to vent there frustrations, view what’s happening to other people in other parts of the country, find out the best way to solve a problem and compare Fire Inspectors advice.
The Law states that “Fire Risk Assessments must be carried out by the owner of the building or by any person that has some level of control in the premises, taking reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire”.
That in it’s self puts the owner of the building or the person that has some level of control more or less on their own, alone, with all the fire regulations and his local Fire Inspector.
I don’t know all the fire regulations and nether do most business owners and that probable applies even more so to the people who just have some level of control.
So I hope this site will develop into a haven for us all, so where not to alone.
I’ve put together a copy of what our local Fire Inspectors advised me to do in our building, which you can down load from the link above.
Please enter your experiences in the comment section below
And don’t hesitate to ask me any question. I’m not an expert in fire regulations but I’ve been through the process of developing our Fire Rsk Assessment and had the fire inspector call to comment on it .
Vew a copy of our Fire Risk Assessment
Have a good year.
Tony
Aug
24
No Fire Risk Assessment
August 24, 2009 | 1 Comment
photo credit: namestartswithj89
The Next Day
Fire Risk Assessment Procedure fill in your email on the right.
I’d just turned off the dish washer and put the breakfast dishes away, it was 10am and there was a knock at the door, post, must be a parcel, opened the front door.
“Good morning, I’ll just show you my I.D. before I cross your threshold”
“hhhhhiiii Come in” I had my dazed look going on.
“I’ve come to view your fire risk assessment, is there some where we can sit”.
I showed him into the sitting room the one with the fire door wedged open. O dear. I could have mentioned at this point, so where were you yesterday then, but something told me not to.
“Right, can I see your fire risk assessment”
I thought, now be honest, he is asking you for something I think I haven’t got, quick.
“When you say fire risk assessment do you mean I have an assessment to give you”
“Yes”
“O, I though you where going to do an assessment and I had to carry out any adjustments that may be necessary and maintain it”
“So you haven’t got one”
“No”
I could see that the Fire Inspector was no clip board and he went on to explain that when the Fire Certificates were in use the fire officer came round every year to check the premises, (as I knew) but if anything went wrong in a building say a fire, it was said more often than not by who ever was in charge of the building that, the fire officer past it.
See what happened yesterday in the next post?
Fire Risk Assessment Procedure