Rules & Regulations

Fire Safety

Fire safety applies to your business

Anyone in business and with some control over a premises is responsible for fire safety. This means identifying hazards and reducing risks, putting in safety measures and ensuring there are adequate escape routes for all staff, customers and visitors to your premises.

Regulatory Reform Fire (Safety Order) 2005

New rules about fire safety came into effect in October 2006. The order applies to nearly all businesses, offices, shops, hotels, pubs, clubs, restaurants, factories, galleries, museums - almost every kind of business you can think of. The new rules superseded all the old ones and made fire safety clearer. Follow the link for a copy of the Short Guide to Making Your Premises Safe From Fire from the Chief Fire Officers Association.

Your obligations

Under the order you must:

• appoint someone in your organisation who is responsible for fire safety
• carry out a fire-risk assessment identifying any possible dangers and risks
• pay particular attention to who may be especially at risk, like children, disabled people or older people
• get rid of or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably possible and provide general fire precautions - like alarms, smoke detectors, extinguishers, fire blankets etc - to deal with any possible risk left
• take other measures to make sure there is protection if flammable or explosive materials are used or stored
• make sure there are escape routes in the event of a fire for everyone, including extra vulnerable people
• create a plan to deal with any emergency
• keep a record of your findings and review and reassess as frequently as necessary
• consult staff, during their regular hours, on appointing people to maintain fire safety and about proposed improvements to fire safety
• inform staff of your findings about hazards an how they will be addressed (or the parent of any child you intend to employ, or the agency for any agency staff you use)
• train staff, during their regular hours, on fire procedures, escape routes and their role (if any) in the emergency plan

Your employees must:

• work with you, be responsible for fire-safety, not do anything which endangers themselves or others

How to comply

Compliance is mainly common sense and a rigorous methodical approach. However, you and your staff may well benefit from training to help you identify the best ways to reduce or provide precautions for your fire hazards. You will need to do the following:

Appoint a responsible person - the responsible person is the person who is ultimately liable in the event of a fire. This is usually obvious - the owner or manager - but in shared buildings (where more than one business occupies a premises - there may be several people with responsibility and you will need to work together, especially to ensure fire safety is maintained in the communal areas, and to make sure your emergency plans don't clash. The responsible person may pass some of their duties, like the risk assessment - to another competent person or persons, but ultimately they are liable in the event of fire.

Risk assessment - as with a health and safety risk assessment, you need to take a methodical, logical approach. You should literally walk around your premises and any annexes and grounds looking for risks. Involve members of staff, if you have any. If you have a fire certificate, this is no longer valid, but it may provide a good starting point for your risk assessment. Take a step-by-step approach:

1. Identify the hazards

• Look for anything that could start a fire: naked flames, heaters, cookers etc
• Look for anything that could feed a fire: waste packaging, piles of laundry awaiting a wash, upholstery and textiles etc
• Look for anything that could accelerate a fire: chemicals, oxygen (including air-conditioning units), bottled gas etc

2. Identify people at risk

• People who work with or near hazards
• People who work alone or in isolated areas, like storerooms
• Children or parents with babies, elderly people, people who are ill, disabled people

3. Evaluate, remove or reduce, protect from fire risk

• Replace highly flammable materials with less flammable ones
• Separate flammable materials from sources of ignition, eg move heaters away from overstocked areas or areas with piles of waste packaging
• Ensure any outside designated smoking areas are well away from fire hazards and that there are safe ways to dispose of cigarettes
  
  Put into place suitable precautions:

• A fire detection and warning system: all premises must have smoke detectors and alarms - these should alert everyone on the premises, including those who are especially at risk
• A way of fighting a small fire: this could be fire extinguishers - as a rule of thumb you should have one for every 200sqm of space.
• Safe routes for people to leave the premises: there are detailed guidelines for this - see below. As a rule of thumb you should have more than one escape route, and if there is only one escape route it should be fire-protected and be less than 18m from the furthest point to the escape point.
• Fire exit doors: exit doors should be able to be used without a key and without any specialist knowledge
• Emergency lighting: consider whether you need this
• Fire safety signs: only the very smallest business won't need fire exit and safety signs
• A management system: a regular routine for reviewing and testing your arrangements. You will also need to ensure that fire safety equipment is regularly tested and you'll need a routine in place to do this.
• Training: everyone who may be expected to help in the event of a fire should have training. The designated fire-safety person and those helping with risk assessments and to devise fire safety precautions will also benefit from training. You have a legal obligation to train your staff in how to respond if they discover a fire, in the event of a fire and how to escape.

4. Record your findings, plan, instruct, inform and train

• You will need to write down your findings: what you discovered in step 1, who you identified in step 2 and how you eradicated, reduced or protected these in step 3. You will also need to record your escape plans and have an emergency plan: who does what in event of a fire. You will need to keep staff, customers and visitors to your premises informed of fire procedures and you will need to train staff.

5. Review

• You should review your findings and procedures as often as necessary to make sure that you are keeping up to date with all hazards and changes

Extra measures for sleeping accommodation

Because people may well be asleep when a fire begins, and therefore more disorientated, slower to respond and therefore more at-risk, if you provide sleeping accommodation (therefore all forms of accommodation: service, self-catering, camping etc), you need to be extra stringent about your precautions and procedures for identifying, reducing and protecting against fire hazards. You also have a duty to display a fire emergency plan and escape routes in every bedroom and at other points in you building (including by fire alarm points and in staff and common areas) to help guests and staff respond in event of fire. You will almost certainly need emergency lighting and an automated fire detection and warning system (as opposed to a manual one). Please download and read: Fire Risk Assessment - Sleeping Accommodation from the Communities and Local Government website.

Extra measures for large places of assembly

If you operate an attraction, night club, gallery or museum, conference venue or other place where more than 300 people gather then, like sleeping accommodation businesses, there will be extra factors for you to consider and extra conditions for you to meet. Large groups of people require different escape procedures, emergency plans and different precautions and risk-reduction procedures. Please download and read: Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Large Places of Assembly from the Communities and Local Government website.

Take an online assessment

You can take an online assessment to see how well you are meeting with fire regulations here at the online gateway to the fire services: Online Fire Safety Assessment.

Communities and Local Government Guides

Below are the following highly useful guides from the Communities and Local Government website

Fire Risk Assessment form

Guides

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Animal Premises and Stables Published: 23 October 2007

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Means of Escape for Disabled People (Supplementary Guide) Published: 29 March 2007

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 - A short guide to making your premises safe from fire Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Offices and Shops Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Sleeping Accommodation Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Educational Premises Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Small and Medium Places of Assembly Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Large Places of Assembly Published: 5 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Theatres, Cinemas and Similar Premises Published: 8 June 2006

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Open Air Events and Venues Published: 8 March 2007

Fire Safety Risk Assessment - Transport Premises and Facilities Published: 12 February 2007

Further Help and Advice

Local fire and rescue services

Your local fire authority is responsible for enforcing this order. They will also be responsible for inspecting you and reviewing your procedures and your maintenance logs.  Visit your local fire authority website for more detailed help:

www.twfire.gov.uk/firesafety/business  This is the fire safety section of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service.

www.northumberland.gov.uk/fire/ This links to the Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service pages.

www.ddfra.co.uk/  This links to the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service website.

Other help and advice

www.fire.gov.uk This is the online gateway to the fire and rescue services.

www.businesslink.gov.uk Business Link provide a number of factsheets and online information about fire and all aspects of running a business.

www.hse.gov.uk The Health and Safety Executive provide information and guidance about all aspects of health and safety. Access the HSE Fire Safety pages here.