Fire Safety Risk Assessment

 

A fire safety risk assessment will help determine the chances of a fire occurring and the dangers from fire that the premises pose for the people on them.  It is important to remember that it is not the responsibility of the Fire and Rescue Service to undertake a risk assessment; their role is the enforcement of the fire safety legislation. Nobody knows as much about your business/activities as you. Use your own knowledge and experience and that of your colleagues and employees to help identify key I Servicesssues and practical suggestions for improvements.

If, however, you do not feel confident enough to undertake the fire safety risk assessment, for example, due to the complexity of the premises  you may wish to commission a fire safety specialist to assist you  

When carrying out a fire safety risk assessment, you should adopt a practical and systematic approach. It must take the whole of the premises into account, including outdoor locations and any rooms and areas which are rarely used. If your premises are small you may be able to assess them as a whole. However, in larger premises, you will probably find it helpful to divide the premises into rooms or a series of assessment areas using natural boundaries such as offices, stores, workshops as well as corridors, stairways and external routes.

The fire safety risk assessment process involves evaluating, and keeping under review, the existing fire safety measures to establish whether they are adequate

The aims of a fire safety risk assessment

• To identify hazards and to reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm to as low as is reasonably practicable;
• To determine what fire safety measures are necessary to ensure the safety of people in the building, should a fire occur.

There are five steps in the assessment process.

• Step One - Identify people at risk
• Step Two - Identify fire hazards
• Step Three - Evaluate the risk and decide if existing fire safety measures are adequate
• Step Four - Record fire safety risk assessment information
• Step Five - Review of fire safety risk assessment

Free Templates

• Log Book Advice
• Policy
• Fire risk assessment template
• Fire risk assessment checklist