Fire Reform FAQs
What is the Fire Safety Order (FSO) 2005?
Does the FSO apply to me?
What do I have to do?
What is a fire risk assessment?
How is a fire risk assessment conducted?
Can I conduct a fire risk assessment?
Who will issue my Fire Certificate?
What are General Fire Precautions?
What are dangerous substances?
What documentation do I need to have?
What else do I need to do?
Do employees have any responsibilities?
Who will enforce this legislation?
Where can I get help?
What can Chilworth do?
What is the Fire Safety Order (FSO) 2005?
Fire safety legislation is far from new and currently is addressed by the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the amended Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997. There is also a general duty of care under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 as well as a host of more specific regulations.
The Fire Safety Order 2005 is intended to simplify, rationalise and consolidate all existing fire safety legislation.
Does the FSO apply to me?
There is a responsibility on every employer at their place of work to address fire safety as it applies to employees and others who may legitimately be on the premises. This legislation only applies in England and Wales as separate regulations will be issued for other areas of the UK.
What do I have to do?
The legislation adopts a new risk-based approach to fire safety. This is a self-assessment process that will require employers to conduct appraisals of work activities and work places, which may not have been carried out rigorously in the past. The process uses the same methodology that has been utilised for other recent health & safety legislations, such as the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR) 2002.
What is a fire risk assessment?
Fire risk assessments have three key objectives, these being:
- To identify hazards
- To reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm (to an acceptable level)
- To decide what physical precautions and management systems are necessary to ensure the safety of people in the event of a fire.
How is a fire risk assessment conducted?
There are six steps in completing the risk assessment.
- Identify the fire hazards
- Identify the people at risk
- Evaluate the risk in terms of its implication for people at risk
- Remove, reduce or protect the risk
- Record, plan, inform, instruct and train
- Review and amend as necessary on an ongoing basis
Can I conduct a fire risk assessment?
That depends! Various bodies have issued guidance and checklists to assist with fire risk assessment. These should be suitable in straightforward cases. However in more complex cases where there may be significant fire and explosion hazards or difficult means of escape, it may be necessary to employ competent fire safety experts. Such experts should have a comprehensive knowledge of dangerous substances, fire development, the behaviour of people in emergency situations and the consequences of both controlled and uncontrolled fire hazards. The legislation also uses the concept of risk reduction to ALARP principles (As Low As is Reasonably Practical), bringing consequence, probability and cost-benefit into the assessment where significant findings are identified. Your ability to satisfactorily complete a fire risk assessment depends on your knowledge and experience in these areas.
The legislation also introduces the concept of ‘competent’ people to conduct the assessment, so experience, ability and knowledge are important factors.
Who will issue my Fire Certificate?
Fire Certificates as issued by the local fire authorities are now no longer available. Your documented risk assessment process has replaced the need for the Certificate.
What are General Fire Precautions?
General fire precautions are the basic steps that you need to take to safeguard people at risk. These include:
- Measures to reduce the risk of fire
- Measures in relation to means of escape
- Measures for securing the means of escape
- Measures relating to an effective means of detecting fire
- Measures relating to an effective means of fighting fire
- Measures concerning training
- Measures concerning emergency action in the event of fire
What are dangerous substances?
Dangerous substances can be flammable, explosive, oxidising, thermally unstable, reactive or can be other materials used in such a way as to create a risk. They may or may not be classified as such for transportation purposes. They may also be in any physical form and used at any temperature and pressure. As it also applies to explosive atmospheres the legislation duplicates the requirements of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR) 2002. The employer has a responsibility to eliminate the use of dangerous substances wherever practical and to minimise the risk from the use of such materials where they cannot be eliminated.
What documentation do I need to have?
Where there are significant findings your basis of safety and the decision making process behind its development needs to be fully documented.
What else do I need to do?
Completion of the risk assessment is the first stage in an ongoing process. Once you have developed your basis of safety you will need to ensure that all employees and others who need to know, are suitable trained and that written safety procedures are in place. You will have a continuing responsibility to ensure that management procedures are kept current. Any changes or new installations will need to be assessed using these same principles. And remember that maintenance of safety equipment will remain a fundamental part of your compliance strategy.
Do employees have any responsibilities?
Every employee while at work has a responsibility to take reasonable care, to co-operate with the employer in complying with the legislation and to inform the employer of any danger to safety that is encountered.
Who will enforce this legislation?
The fire and rescue authority for the area in which the premises are located will generally be responsible for enforcement. These authorities will appoint inspectors who will have wide ranging powers to inspect premises and ascertain compliance. The authority will have the power to serve enforcement notices or in serious cases prohibition notices. Failure to comply will result in a fine.
Where can I get help?
In the past the local fire and rescue authority has been a primary source of help. Their role has now changed and they are unlikely to continue to provide the same level of advice while also acting as the enforcer. The Government has issued 11 guidance documents for compliance which are available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire.
What can Chilworth do?
Chilworth is ideally situated to assist with your compliance requirements. We have the necessary in house skills and experience to deal with the most complex risk assessments. We can provide a cost effective in-house solution particularly when combining this compliance requirement with DSEAR.
For customers who have already completed their DSEAR assessments, we will be able to build on these as the basis for the fire risk evaluation and provide a ‘fast track’ solution.
Areas of expertise include:
- Fire risk evaluation
- Fire prevention
- Fire protection and detection
- Emergency response
- Training
- Loss Prevention surveys
Examples of specialist areas of expertise include:
- Full or semi-quantified risk analysis
- Fixed fire protection and detection specification
- Pressure relief for vessels exposed to fire
- Compliance of control systems with IEC 61508
- Vapour cloud explosin modelling
- Dispersion of products of combustion
- Fire water run-off
- Fire Safety management systems
- COMAH cases
- Business impact evaluation
|
|
|
