Sunday 28 December 2008

Fire Training – Make Sure You Know What The Law Says About Staff Safety Training

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, all UK businesses have to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment on their work premises, to ensure the safety of staff and anyone else likely to be in the workplace. Another requirement of the Order is that the findings of your Fire Risk Assessment have to be communicated to your staff and you need to ensure that all staff are trained in the action they need to take in an emergency.

The responsibility for these duties falls to what the legislation calls the ‘Responsible Person’. This is the business owner or person mainly responsible for the work premises. Several people may share this role.

One of the key things your Fire Risk Assessment will lead to is an Emergency Plan, which will include action to take in an emergency, including any special duties required of particular staff. Your emergency plan is not worth having unless your workforce know and understand what it says and have practice in putting it into action. This should be the first focus for your staff fire training.

Legislation highlights some key areas to pay attention to when it comes to staff training. These are primarily the need to provide training for new staff and when an employee has a change of duties or work environment.

Your Fire Training ought to include the following:

  • Full details of the contents of your Emergency Plan
  • Information on the need to keep escape routes free from obstructions at all times
  • Training in the use of fire fighting equipment

Your Emergency Plan may include special duties for some staff, who will be designated as Fire Marshals. These people will almost certainly require additional training relating to their particular responsibilities. This training might include:

  • More specific or detailed training in the use of fire extinguishers
  • More detailed information about the layout of the premises
  • Information about dealing with people with special requirements during an evacuation, such as disabled people
  • Training in action to take with regard to evacuation of people on the premises who are not regular staff, such as visitors, contractors, etc

An essential part of any fire training programme is the fire drill. You will never really know if your emergency evacuation plan will work in reality unless you try it out and give your staff the opportunity to practice it. Your staff need to feel comfortable with all the action they will need to take in an emergency. A real emergency is not the time to find out that some detail of your emergency plan does not quite work in practice.

Your staff will be far more relaxed and efficient in a real emergency if they are used to going through the motions in practice. Ideally you should carry out fire drills regularly, but not so that they are predictable. The most effective use of fire drills is if you can do them as a surprise when most people are not expecting them. This gets a more realistic reaction, which is the most useful for you to make judgements about whether anything needs changing.

In order to carry out a fire drill you need to activate the fire alarm to replicate a real emergency. The best way to activate the alarm is usually by a special test key that activates a call point. Before you carry out a fire drill you need to make sure you warn the alarm monitoring company if your fire alarm is monitored, and any neighbouring premises that are linked to your alarm.

A useful thing to do in a fire drill is to block off one possible escape route. In a real emergency the fire may be blocking one of the obvious ways out, forcing people to use alternative exits. Blocking off different exits gets people used to using alternative means of escape.

As the Responsible Person you should try to observe the fire drill yourself and take note of how effective the drill is, and whether there are any lessons to be learnt for the future. Your Emergency Plan should be something that is open to constant amendment as circumstances change.

Saturday 6 December 2008

New Fire Safety Regulations – Make Sure Your Business Complies With The Law

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into effect in 2006 and affects the vast majority of UK businesses. If you are not sure whether it applies to you or not, be assured that it does, unless you work in a field, at home, offshore or down a hole.


This article will summarise the main effects of the Order, in terms of what duties and responsibilities it puts on business owners and managers. The Order places responsibility for the safety of people in the workplace very clearly with the person who owns or controls the premises.


That person is referred to as the ‘Responsible Person’. In shared premises there can be more than one Responsible Person.


Fire Risk Assessment


The Fire Risk Assessment is the cornerstone of the Regulatory Reform Order, and is a framework for assessing the fire safety controls of a workplace. The government recommend a structured five step process as follows:

  • Identify fire hazards

  • Identify people at risk

  • Evaluate the risks and minimise them

  • Record Your Findings

  • Review your Assessment regularly

Means of Escape


You have a responsibility to ensure that your workplace has adequate means of escape and that these are accessible and clear at all times. This includes provision of fire exit doors which open outwards (revolving doors are not acceptable). All fire doors should be properly maintained to ensure closers work properly, seals are effective, etc.


Fire Safety Signs


It is also necessary to have proper safety signs in place, covering things like action to take in the event of a fire, location of fire fighting equipment and location and direction of emergency escape routes. Your escape routes and emergency exits must also have suitable emergency lighting, so that they are visible even in the event of a power failure.


Fire Detection and Alarm Systems


Your Fire Risk Assessment should tell you whether your fire detection and alarm system is adequate or not. No specific system is prescribed by the Regulatory Reform Order, as the system you use will depend very much on the nature of your premises. Large premises may have very sophisticated automatic systems, while a small business may just have a gong or Klaxon.


Fire Extinguishers


You have a duty to provide appropriate fire fighting equipment, usually portable fire extinguishers. There is also a duty to ensure that any such equipment is properly checked and maintained in good working order.


Staff Training and Instruction


The outcome of your Fire Risk Assessment must be communicated to your staff, and all staff have to receive training in fire safety procedures, including what action to take in the event of a fire. Additional training might be required for staff with additional duties, such as Fire Marshals.


Documentation and Written Procedures


The findings of your Fire Risk Assessment must be recorded, unless you employ fewer than five people. You must also have a written Emergency Plan, covering action to take in an emergency.

You need to keep a record of staff training delivered, and the maintenance and testing of your fire safety equipment, such as emergency lighting and fire extinguishers.


What If I Don’t Comply?


Your local Fire Authority is the enforcement authority for this legislation. They have the power to inspect your workplace and paperwork and ask questions about the premises, procedures and who the Responsible Person is. Ultimately, if you do not comply, they can take you to court and you can be fined up to £5,000 or imprisoned for up to two years.


Conclusions


The Fire Risk Assessment is the main change brought in by the Order, and pretty much everything else flows from that. All the Fire Risk Assessment really does is give a practical structure to the work we should be doing anyway in the interests of protecting our staff and our businesses.


In reading through this summary of the Regulatory Reform Order, you will have been able to make some preliminary judgements about the extent to which your own premises are likely to meet these standards. Assuming your existing procedures are reasonably adequate, there is no reason why any of this should be a costly or time-consuming exercise. Unless you have a particularly complex workplace, you should be able to carry out your own Fire Risk Assessment.

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Fire Risk Assessment - How to Carry Out Your Own Fire Risk Assessments

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts a legal duty on all businesses to carry out Fire Risk Assessments. You may be asked for these by your local Fire authority. A ‘Responsible Person’ must be designated for each premises, and if you are the owner, or are responsible for people in your organization, that probably needs to be you.

With a little advice, carrying out a Fire Risk Assessment is something that anyone can do, unless you have a particularly large or complex workplace. It may be that you have perfectly good procedures in place to ensure the safety of your premises and staff, but carrying out a Fire Risk Assessment will enable you to confirm this, and check that the systems and precautions already in place are working effectively.

Your Fire Risk Assessment will form the basis for all your Fire Safety Measures. It should not be regarded as an end in itself, but rather as a tool to help you identify possible hazards or problems, and enable you to take steps to ensure the safety of your business and your staff.

What A Fire Risk Assessment Will Do:

  • identify any potential fire hazards
  • reduce the risk from these hazards to a manageable level
  • identify what action you should take to protect the people on your premises in the event of a fire.

A Step By Step Approach

There are five steps involved in producing your Fire Risk Assessment.

1. Identify The Hazards

In order for a fire to start, three things are required: a source of ignition, fuel and oxygen. The best way to identify possible hazards is to go around your premises and think about what could possibly be a source of ignition, what could burn and help a fire spread, and how oxygen (in the air) might help it burn.

Sources of ignition will be anything involving a naked flame or sparks, or anything which gets hot (or could get hot if it develops a fault).

Fuel is anything that will burn, so think of stationary, cardboard, plastics, foam cushions, soft furnishings, flammable liquids, etc.

The main source of oxygen is the air around us, so consider how air moves around your premises – ventilation shafts, doors and windows, etc.

2. Identify People Who Are At Risk

The second step is to identify anyone in your workplace who may be at risk if a fire broke out. Most of this will be obvious, but don’t forget contractors, temporary staff, members of the public and visitors. Also pay attention to anyone who may have difficulty leaving the premises quickly in an emergency (disabled people or parents with very young children, etc)

3. Evaluate The Risks

There are several mini-steps in this section. Now that you have identified the possible hazards and people who may be at risk, you need to assess the risk of those hazards actually resulting in a fire. You must then look at the risks this would pose to the people you have identified if a fire did occur.

Once you are clear about this, you need to work out how to remove or minimize those potential hazards, and how you remove or manage the risk they pose to people,

4. Record Your Findings, Instruction and Co-operation

If you employ five or more people, you must record the significant findings of your Fire Risk Assessment. Depending on the nature of your business, this could just be a few notes on one sheet of paper, or it could be a more detailed document and action plan.

You also need to have a written Emergency Plan. Again this could vary from just ‘Fire Action’ notices on the walls, to a detailed plan setting out specific duties for certain staff, etc.

Under this section, you are also required to ensure that your staff are given information about the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment, and training in their responsibilities, particularly in the event of an evacuation.

Your staff have a duty to co-operate as necessary to enable you to carry out this legal responsibility, and you must also co-operate with any other organizations you share premises with.

5. Review

Once complete, the Fire Risk Assessment should not be forgotten. If anything changes in your workplace (new machinery or equipment, new staff, refurbishment, moving premises, etc) you will need to review your Fire Risk Assessment and see if anything needs amending in light of the new circumstances.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Fire Safety – Simple Steps To Protect Your Business From The Risk of Fire

Under current UK law businesses are now required to undertake certain measures to ensure the safety of their premises and the people who work there. The main elements of the law relate to the new duty to ensure that a Fire Risk Assessment is carried out. All a Fire Risk Assessment really does is give a structure to a series of fire safety measures which it would be sensible to do anyway.

We all have a vested interest in protecting our businesses and staff from any risk or disruption, let alone one as potentially disastrous as a fire. There are several simple steps to carrying out a Fire Risk Assessment, but much of it is applying common sense to identifying what may cause a fire, and what you can do to reduce the risk of this happening.

If you consider the following fire safety issues and record your findings, you will have completed a significant chunk of your Fire Risk Assessment already, as well as reducing the chances of a fire breaking out on your premises:

  • Think about possible fire hazards, what could catch fire and what could burn? What can you do to reduce the chances of this happening?

  • You need an efficient fire warning system in place. This will vary depending on your business, from someone shouting “FIRE!” to a sophisticated automatic fire detection system.

  • Check that you have the appropriate number and type of fire extinguishers in the correct places throughout your premises. For basic water extinguishers in a normal environment, you need one extinguisher per 200 square metres of floor space.

  • Are your fire exit routes clearly marked with ‘pictograph’ fire exit signs? From each point on an escape route you should be able to see the next sign.

  • Are your escape routes adequate for each work area? You should ideally have at least two possible routes from each area, in case one is blocked by fire.

  • Are your escape routes completely free from obstruction at all times? If an exit door is locked or blocked by heavy equipment, it may as well not be there. Exit doors should be ‘idiot proof’ and require no special knowledge in order to open them.

  • Your escape routes and exits must have suitable emergency lighting. This must be properly maintained, which is best done under a service contract.
Your staff must be trained so that they know what to do in the event of a fire. It may be appropriate to give special training as Fire Marshalls to some staff who have specific duties in a fire. Appropriate action for staff in an emergency should be recorded in an Emergency Plan. Your plan should also consider things like action to take if a neighbouring building catches fire.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Fire Safety Tips - How To Protect Your Business From Arson

Recent statistics show that 45% of all fires in the UK were started deliberately. Of these arson attacks, 12,800 were on non-residential buildings such as your workplace. These deliberate fires caused 118 deaths and 2,700 other casualties.

Arson is a very real threat, and if you allow your business to be an easy target you are far more likely to be the subject of an attack. Taking steps to make life difficult for any would-be arsonist will almost certainly mean they give up and look for a softer target.

Follow the following simple steps to protect your business and your staff:

  • Make sure it is a specific person’s job to be responsible for the prevention of arson attacks and other fire safety issues.
  • Check the security of your doors and windows, and any perimeter fences. Arson is often linked to burglary.
  • Consider CCTV to cover the outside of your premises – this will act as a deterrent.
  • Fit metal containers inside letter boxes and minimise gaps under doors.
  • Store bins and rubbish away from the walls of your building, and chain wheelie bins up so they can’t be set on fire then pushed against your building.
  • Keep combustible materials away from your premises perimeter, to prevent matches, etc being thrown into them from beyond your boundary.
  • Have proper systems in place for visitors to your site and encourage staff to challenge anyone who they think should not be on the premises.
  • Store any flammable liquids correctly, in a secure store.
  • Have a thorough locking up procedure that includes checks on all doors and windows, that alarms are on, that external illumination is on and that no rubbish or combustible material is left lying about outside.


Follow these simple steps and you will go a long way to minimising the chances of your business suffering as the result of an arson attack.

Sunday 26 October 2008

Fire Risk Assessment - The Facts

In 2006 the law changed in the UK, and now all British Businesses have a legal duty to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment on their place of work. If you are wondering whether it applies to your work premises, be assured that it most certainly does, unless you work at home, offshore, in a field, in the air or down a borehole!

The law which covers this is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which came into effect in 2006 for England, Scotland and Wales (and 2008 for Northern Ireland).

But if you aren’t fully up to speed or haven’t yet done a Fire Risk Assessment, there’s no need toworry - with little help and advice it is a logical process that anyone can carry out for themselves.

The law now says that a ‘Responsible Person’ must be designated for all workplaces, and that this person has to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment. If your organisation employs five or more people, you also have to record the findings of your assessment.

A Responsible Person is defined as the owner, or person in control of the workplace. If you share a building with other organisations, the responsibility might be shared among a few people. If you have responsibility for the other people in your organisation, it is safe to assume you will be the Responsible Person, even if other people are too.

It is an often quoted statistic that over 70% of businesses involved in major fires either don’t reopen or fail within three years.

While I can’t actually trace this statement to its source, it certainly sounds plausible. Whether it’s strictly accurate or not, a fire is something your business will definitely be a lot healthier without. We are all doing these Fire Risk Assessments because of the law, but it is actually just giving a formal structure to what we should be doing anyway in the best interests of our businesses.

I’ve spent the last twenty years managing large public buildings, and for all that time have essentially been taking all the actions that the new law requires of us, apart from recording it in this new way that the Fire Risk Assessment requires. It is basically what we should be doing anyway, and with a bit of assistance, the formal recording part doesn’t need to hurt – particularly once you’ve done the actual Assessment.

Unless you have a particularly large or complex business, there is no reason why you can’t carry out your own Fire Risk Assessment with relative ease. Find out how you can produce a Fire Risk Assessment by following the free step by step guide at the website Fire-RiskAssessment.com