Key Stages - Step 3

Evaluate, Remove, Reduce and Protect From Risk

Evaluate the risk of a fire occurring

The chances of a fire starting will be low if your premises has few ignition sources and combustible materials are kept away from them.

In general, fires start in one of three ways:

• accidentally, such as when smoking materials are not properly extinguished
• by act or omission, such as when electrical office equipment is not properly maintained
• deliberately, such as an arson attack

Look critically at your premises and try to identify any accidents waiting to happen and any acts or omissions which might allow a fire to start. You should also look for any situation that may present an opportunity for an arsonist.

Evaluate the risk to people

It is unlikely that you will have concluded that there is no chance of a fire starting anywhere in your premises so you now need to evaluate the actual risk to people should a fire start and spread from a location within your premises.

Smoke produced by a fire also contains toxic gases which are harmful to people. A fire in a building with modern fittings and materials generates smoke that is thick and black, obscures vision, causes great difficulty in breathing and can block the escape routes.

It is essential that the means of escape and other fire precautions are adequate to ensure that everyone can make their escape to a place of total safety before the fire and its effects can trap them in the building.

In evaluating this risk to people you will need to consider situations such as:

• fire starting on a lower floor affecting the only escape route for people on upper floors or the only escape route for people with disabilities
• fire developing in an unoccupied space that people have to pass by to escape from the building
• fire or smoke spreading through a building via routes such as vertical shafts, service ducts, ventilation systems, affecting people in remote areas
• fire starting in a service room and affecting hazardous materials
• fire spreading rapidly through the building because of large quantities of combustible goods
• rapid vertical fire spread in racked displays. Smoke moving through a building
• fire and smoke spreading through a building due to incorrectly installed fire doors or incorrectly installed services penetrating fire walls
• fire and smoke spreading through the building due to poorly maintained and damaged fire doors or fire doors being wedged open.

Remove or reduce the hazards

Having identified the fire hazards, you now need to remove those hazards if reasonably practicable to do so. If you cannot remove the hazards, you need to take reasonable steps to reduce them if you can. This is an essential part of fire risk assessment and as a priority this must take place before any other actions.

Ensure that any actions you take to remove or reduce fire hazards are not substituted by other hazards. For example, if you replace a flammable substance with a toxic or corrosive one. You must consider ways to:

• Remove or reduce sources of ignition
• Remove or reduce sources fuel
• Remove or reduce sources of oxygen
• Remove or reduce the risks to people

You now need to reduce any remaining fire risk to people to as low as reasonably practicable, by ensuring that adequate fire precautions are in place to warn people in the event of a fire and allow them to safely escape.

The level of fire protection you need to provide will depend on the level of risk that remains in the premises after you have removed or reduced the hazards and risks.

Flexibility of fire protection measures

Flexibility will be required when applying this guidance. The objective should be to reduce the remaining risk to a level as low as reasonably practicable. The higher the risk of fire and risk to life, the higher the standards of fire protection will need to be.

Fire-detection and warning systems

In some small, open-plan, single-storey premises, a fire may be obvious to everyone as soon as it starts. In these cases, where the number and position of exits and the travel distance to them is adequate, a simple shout of 'fire' or a simple manually operated device, may be all that is needed. Where a simple shout or manually operated device is not adequate, it is likely that an electrical fire warning system will be required.

In larger premises, particularly those with more than one floor, where an alarm given from any single point is unlikely to be heard throughout the building an electrical system incorporating sounders and manually operated call points (break-glass boxes) is likely to be required.

Where there are unoccupied areas, or common corridors and circulation spaces in multi-occupied premises, in which a fire could develop, an automatic fire detection system may be necessary.

False alarms from electrical fire warning systems are a major problem (e.g. malicious activation of manual call points) and result in many unwanted calls to the fire and rescue service every year. To help reduce the number of false alarms, the design and location of activation devices should be reviewed against the way the premises are currently used.

Fire fighting equipment and facilities

Fire fighting equipment can reduce the risk of a small fire, e.g. a fire in a waste-paper bin, developing into a large one. This equipment will usually comprise enough portable extinguishers that must be suitable for the risk.

In small premises, having one or two portable extinguishers of the appropriate type, readily available for use, may be all that is necessary. In larger, more complex premises, a number of portable extinguishers may be required and they should be sited in suitable locations.

All staff should be familiar with the location and basic operating procedures for the equipment provided, in case they need to use it. Other fixed installations and facilities to assist fire-fighters may also have been provided.

Where these have been required by law, e.g. the Building Regulations or local Acts, such equipment and facilities must be maintained.

Similarly, if provided for other reasons, e.g. insurance, it is good practice to ensure that they are properly maintained.

Keeping records of the maintenance carried out will help you demonstrate to the enforcing authority that you have complied with fire safety law.

Escape routes

Once a fire has started, been detected and a warning given, everyone in your premises should be able to escape to a place of total safety unaided and without the help of the fire and rescue service. However, some people with disabilities and others with special needs may need help from staff who will need to be designated for the purpose.

When determining whether your premises have adequate escape routes, you need to consider a number of factors, including:

• the type and number of people using the premises
• escape time
• the age and construction of the premises
• the number and complexity of escape routes and exits
• whether lifts can or need to be used
• the use of phased or delayed alarm evacuation
• assisted means of escape and Personal Escape/Evacuation Plans (PEEPS).

The type and number of people using the premises

The number and capability of people present will influence your assessment of the escape routes. You must ensure that your existing escape routes are sufficient and capable of safely evacuating all the people likely to use your premises at any time. If necessary you may need either to increase the capacity of the escape routes or restrict the number of people in the premises.

The number of escape routes and exits

When evaluating escape routes, you may need to build in a safety factor by discounting the largest exit from your escape plan, then determine whether the remaining escape routes from a room, floor or building will be sufficient to evacuate all the occupants within a reasonable time.

Management of escape routes

It is essential that escape routes, are managed and maintained to ensure that they remain usable and available at all times when the premises are occupied. Corridors and stairways that form part of escape routes should be kept clear and hazard free at all times.

Emergency escape lighting

Where any escape routes are internal and without windows, or your premises are used during periods of darkness, including early darkness on winter days, then some form of backup to the normal escape route lighting (emergency escape lighting) is likely to be required.

In small premises, borrowed lighting, e.g. from street lamps may be acceptable. In larger premises it is likely that a more comprehensive system will be needed.

Signs and Notices

Signs

Signs must be used, where necessary, to help people identify escape routes, find fire fighting equipment and emergency fire telephones. These signs are required under the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 19965,6 and must comply with the provisions of those Regulations.

For a sign to comply with these Regulations it must be in pictogram form. The pictogram can be supplemented by text if this is considered necessary to make the sign more easily understood, but you must not have a safety sign that uses only text.

Notices

Notices must be used, where necessary, to provide the following:

• instructions on how to use any fire
• safety equipment
• the actions to be taken in the event of fire
• help for the fire and rescue service (e.g.. Location of sprinkler valves or electrical cut off switches.)

All signs and notices should be positioned so that they can be easily seen and understood.

Installation, testing and maintenance

New fire precautions should be installed by a competent person.

You must keep any existing equipment, devices or facilities that are provided in your premises for the safety of people, such as fire alarms, fire extinguishers, lighting etc , in effective working order and maintain the prevention of smoke into escape routes.

You must ensure regular checks, periodic servicing and maintenance are carried out whatever the size of your premises and any defects are put right as quickly as possible.