Fires are one of the deadliest hazards you can face in almost any setting. The speed with which a fire can spread under the right circumstances is staggering, and no fire safety measure is 100% fool proof. This is why fire risk assessments are so important—not just to slow the spread of fire if one does happen but prevent them from happening in the first place.
Conducting a fire risk assessment is a legal requirement in the UK under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, but it’s much more than a box-ticking exercise. The steps involved in a fire risk assessment ensure that fire hazards are identified, and appropriate safety measures are in place—protecting property from destruction, and employees and guests from serious harm.
What is a fire risk assessment?
A fire risk assessment is a structured process aimed at identifying potential fire risks and hazards within a workplace and determining the necessary actions to correct and mitigate them. It’s a critical component of what’s known as fire safety management, which organises all the aspects of fire safety in a building or on a site.
A typical fire risk assessment will include a list of hazards and the risk they pose, graded according to their severity. It will also list what if anything is currently being done to mitigate against these hazards, or what is contributing to them. Finally, it will list the action that needs to be taken to address them and bring your business back into line with fire safety regulations, and how quickly this action needs to be taken.
Fire hazards are issues that should be addressed immediately, while fire risks are potential problems that need to be mitigated against. For example, piled up furniture near a fire door or exposed cables would represent a fire hazard, which would be identified in a fire risk assessment as issues that need to be fixed.
A fire risk might be the use of equipment or machinery which could be prone to combustion. This wouldn’t require you to get rid of the machinery but would require strategies to be put into place to reduce the risk of a fire, and to respond quickly if a fire does happen. Fire risk assessments involve a thorough exploration of a site, and the work performed there to identify these hazards and risks, and suggest improvements that need to be made.
The value of a fire risk assessment
Fundamentally, fire risk assessments are there to help businesses comply with their legal responsibility to keep staff and visitors safe from fires. By conducting a fire risk assessment, businesses can learn what they need to do to improve fire safety in their workplace, implementing changes to reduce the risk of fires, prevent injuries or fatalities, and minimise damage to property and assets.
The value of a fire risk assessment goes beyond just complying with the law, though. Many of the fire hazards that surround us go unnoticed and can slowly develop over time. Actions taken to improve fire safety might lapse over time, and negative reinforcement might occur, where we assume that because nothing has happened so far, our current course of action is the right one. Staff may also lack the training they need to identify fire risks and act in a safe manner, which may be one of the risks a fire risk assessment points out!
Identifying hazards and implementing control measures reduces the likelihood of a fire happening, but it also helps to better prepare people in case one breaks out. A fire risk assessment will consider whether your safety protocols, evacuation plans, and fire-fighting equipment are up-to-date and being implemented correctly and suggest updates and retraining if not.
Regular policy reviews will ensure that everyone knows how to act to prevent fires, and how to respond in an emergency, including how and where to evacuate, the location of fire doors and escapes, and the location and use of fire extinguishers.
The fire risk assessment process
A fire risk assessment is a systematic process, walking through a building or workplace to determine potential fire hazards and assess the level of risk. Any fire risk assessment will typically follow the following steps:
- Identify fire hazards
This involves spotting and noting down anything that could start a fire. Examples include ignition sources such as electrical equipment or open flames, as well as anything that could fuel a fire, including combustible materials such as paper, chemicals, or furniture.
- Identify people at risk
Certain individuals can be at greater risk in the event of a fire. This will include employees as well as visitors or contractors and will particularly focus on anyone with unique access requirements or who may not be able to evacuate quickly, such as elderly or disabled people.
- Evaluate and reduce risks
Once risk factors have been identified, the assessor will look at the likelihood of a fire occurring, and what its potential consequences would be. This will involve looking at control measures such as fire detection systems, alarms, emergency exits, and emergency signage. They will also look at the use of materials in the workplace, and how this might contribute to the spread of a fire, including whether fire-resistant materials are in use and properly rated.
Where necessary, additional measures will then be drafted to reduce fire risks. These will follow best practices as they apply to that specific building or site, directly addressing hazards and suggesting changes to fire policies and protection that will bring the organisation in line with fire safety law.
- Record and implement fire safety measures
While a very small business can get away with an informal assessment, fire risk assessments must be documented if the business has five or more employees. This includes recording any identified fire hazards, outlining fire safety procedures and corrections that need to be taken, and assigning responsibilities for addressing these to relevant personnel.
- Review and update the assessment
A fire risk assessment is only valid if the design and contents of the workplace, fire safety policies, and employees remain the same. Fire risks inevitably change over time due to factors like building modifications, new equipment, and new staff not maintaining the same level of training. Regular reviews any time major changes occur help to ensure that your organisation’s fire safety policies remain effective and up-to-date, and that new fire hazards don’t go unaddressed.
Record, Plan, Inform, Train, and Review
A fire risk assessment is only useful if businesses follow through on it. As such, it’s the fourth and fifth steps that are worth homing in on, something we often distil down to the phrase ‘Record, Plan, Inform, Train, and Review’. Following these steps when you receive your fire risk assessment ensures you keep detailed records of all the fire risks on your site, and how you’ve addressed them. This transparency makes further fire risk assessments easier, but it also goes a long way to helping you guarantee compliance with fire safety law.
A comprehensive fire emergency plan should be developed, detailing evacuation procedures and assigning roles to specific personnel to ensure swift and organised responses in an emergency. Informing all staff and visitors about fire safety measures, evacuation routes, and emergency contacts is essential to maintaining awareness and preparedness.
Training sessions should be conducted regularly, including fire drills and hands-on training with fire extinguishers, to ensure employees know how to respond effectively in an emergency. Finally, periodic reviews of the fire risk assessment help identify changes in the workplace that may impact fire safety, ensuring ongoing improvements and the continued effectiveness of fire prevention strategies.
Common areas for improvement
While every fire risk assessment is different, there are common oversights that many fire risk assessments help to address. Some fire hazards are obvious, but things like household cleaning chemicals or computer hardware may not be factored into a fire safety policy. The makeup of the workforce and potential visitors is also often neglected, with no specific provisions to ensure everyone can evacuate safely. While smoke detectors and alarms are an obvious provision, they aren’t always properly maintained and regularly tested, which can catch people short in an emergency.
It’s also surprisingly common for emergency escape routes and exits not to be clearly marked, as well as being free of obstructions, like furniture parked in nearby corridors. Proper signage and emergency lighting also aren’t always considered, as even familiar environments can quickly become hard to navigate through smoke and under stress. Firefighting equipment is also a common issue, both in terms of availability and maintenance. More than anything, however, the most overlooked area might be fire safety training—ensuring that staff members know how to prevent fires as well as escape from them.
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Fire risk assessments are a fundamental component of workplace safety and legal compliance in the UK. By identifying hazards, protecting at-risk individuals, and implementing robust fire safety measures, organisations can minimise the risk of fire, and ensure the safety of everyone on the premises.
Regular review and training are essential to maintaining an effective fire safety strategy, ensuring preparedness for any emergency. Whether for a small business or a large facility, a thorough fire risk assessment can make all the difference in preventing fire-related incidents.
Our fire risk assessors are FPA and NEBOSH accredited, ensuring that your fire risk assessments are fully compliant and use the latest knowledge. To learn more and book a fire risk assessment, visit our Fire Risk Assessment page, or contact us today.