All apartment buildings and all businesses are required by law to conduct a fire risk assessment. However, not everyone fully understands this important fire safety measure.
A frequently asked question is, "What is a fire risk assessment?" A fire risk assessment should be at the centre of a building's fire safety plan.
Unfortunately, fire risk assessment is often overlooked. This unnecessarily exposes buildings to fire hazards and can sometimes result in loss of life.
At Element Passive Fire Protection, we offer a comprehensive range of fire protection services, including fire risk assessments and fire door assessments.
What Are Fire Risk Assessments?
A fire risk assessment is a review of a building to assess the risk of fire and, if necessary, make recommendations to make the building safer.
A fire risk assessment record is not required if fewer than 5 people are in the building on a regular basis, so it's not necessarily documentation.
However, it is recommended that fire risk assessments are always in writing. It's an easy way to communicate your findings and ensure that your recommendations are implemented.
What Are the Legal Guidelines for Fire Risk Assessments?
There are some specific guidelines for fire risk assessment.
Fire risk assessments should be reviewed periodically. We encourage you to include the following in your review:
- Every 12 months after the first assessment is performed
- A new assessment must be conducted every five years
- When the use of the building is significantly changed
- Building structure e.g. B. Floor plan changed
- If the resident has changed significantly
Changes in building layout, usage, or the types of residents who use or live in a building can have a significant impact on fire protection planning. Therefore, it is very important to review the fire risk assessment when one of these cases occurs.
For five permanent residents, a fire risk assessment must be made in writing. Generally, apartments and commercial buildings with four or more occupants at the same time are legally required to have a documented fire risk assessment.
As previously mentioned, a written evaluation is recommended regardless of the size of the facility.
There are some other situations where a written fire risk assessment is required, even if there are less than five regular residents of her home. they are:
- When instructed to do so by the fire service (such as after a visit)
- If your facility requires a license
- The most important findings and actions to be taken should be recorded.
- Whether he writes it down or not, there are two parts to a fire risk assessment that he needs to prepare for. The first part is the actual verification, assessing the fire safety of the building based on several points.
- The second part is a list of requirements that buildings must meet to comply with fire safety measures.
It is very important to follow these recommendations to ensure the safety of your building in the end.
How can I obtain a copy of a building's fire risk assessment?
As a building occupant, you have the right to access the facility's fire risk assessment as needed.
First, contact the person in charge of the building. If you don't know who this is, a business owner, manager, landlord, or furniture department is a good place to start.
If you find that your building does not have a valid fire risk assessment, you should ask those responsible to do so immediately. If you feel that your concerns are not being taken seriously by your building personnel, as a last resort, contact your local fire department or ambulance.
However, fire and rescue teams are very busy and should not be contacted over trivial matters. Do not use the emergency number 999 either. Your local fire brigade's general directory number should be found online.
Who can conduct a fire risk assessment?
According to legal guidelines, fire risk assessments may be carried out by "competent" persons. This does not necessarily mean that a qualified fire risk assessor must be used.
However, this means that anyone performing a fire risk assessment should be familiar with assessing a building or site against all of the above factors.
Additionally, you should be able to:
- Make detailed and clear notes of all important results
- If changes are required, develop a fire safety action plan and keep these actions in writing.
- Implement action plans as needed, such as installing fire compartmentation!
- Continuously update fire risk assessments
Professional fire risk assessors have undergone extensive in-depth training and are familiar with all the latest directives and legal requirements, including how they apply to different types of buildings.
