Fire Risk Assessment

My name is Tony Casey I live with my wife in Manchester England, where we have run the Cornerstones Guest House for the last 25 years. In 2006 new fire regulations came into power in the U.K, from having a fire certificate issued by the city fire brigade to having a Fire Risk Assessment F.R.A created by:

The official quote

“A Fire Risk Assessment must be carried out by the owner of the building or by any person that has some level of control in the premises, taking reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire”.

Three months later with one more room completed, and all rooms booked, there was a knock at the door around 3pm.

"Mr Casey is it”

The two men were dress in uniform one with a peeked hat with a fire department badge on it, the other with a clip board under his arm.

First impressions suggested it was a higher ranking man in the peeked hat and a trainee with the clip board, the peeked hat introduce himself as the local Fire Officer and his companion as fire man John Smith (names may have been change to protect the innocent)

I'm thinking to myself, fire officer, what’s a fire officer doing here, I never asked for a fire officer to call. These thoughts were being asked behind a stone looking face.

“I see you have a sign in your garden saying you’re a guest house”. Said the clip board.

“Yeeesss”, "Yes" I said slowly.

"Can you tell me why such a large building is not registered with the fire department as a Guest House”.

Was it quiz? “As far as I know we declared everything on our planning application”

While the inspection was being carried out I was saying nothing; just trying to think where I went wrong, I'd read all about fire certificates, then all of a sudden it came to me just has the fireman with the clip board stopped talking.

I told them.

“As far as I'm concerned I am trading with in the law in that we do not have any more than 6 bed spaces above the first floor”

The two men looked at each other; the peeked hat said nothing and the clip board said he would have to look in to it and get back to me. The next day the Fire Officer called back and apologised for his student. I was not amused.

That was my first dealings with a fire officer and so as we progressed and went on to gain a fire certificate I was always cautious of dealing with the fire officer and over the last 25 years I would sum up the eight fire officers I've dealt with as they all had their own view on different subjects within the fire certificate process.

Under the new laws the old fire certificate no longer exists so it's a blank screen and

having just had our F.R.A. (Fire Risk Assessment) reviewed by our local fire officer and I though I'd let people know, the procedure I used to produce our F.R.A., where I went wrong and how it was resolved.

Although every fire risk assessment is different the statement I’m about to make is one of the most important parts of any Fire Risk Assessment.

What ever you put in your F.R.A must be correct and that any procedures you are suppose to carry out, are carried out. If not, in the event of a fire you may not be insured if it’s proven any of your F.R.A. is not as you have stated.

Although this is just one type of building the procedures are the same for all types of premises but the out come is different in every case, confused you won’t be.

The whole reason for this historic change in the law is to remove any responsibility from the old 'Fire Officer' now 'The Fire Inspector'.
Under the old regime if there was a fire and some one was injured which resulted in a court case the owner of the building could say that the fire officer inspected the building and past it thus there was an element of responsibility that fell on the fire officer who was only in the building once a year.

To put it in layman terms what happens now is the owner of the building and or the person that has some level of control in the premises (managers) walks round the building recording every aspect of their fire prevention precautions, how it's maintained, who maintains it and when; the notices you have in place both staff and public, your staff training procedures and how it's all recorded.

That then becomes your Fire Risk Assessment which you maintain and record any changes you may make or recognise that effect any part of you fire precautions.

Having created your Fire Risk Assessment you have now put yourself or the person that has some level of control in the premises in full responsibility of that building.

The roll of the Fire Inspector is to advise you; he will not tell you what to do, because that would portion part of the responsibility over to him.

To give you an idea of how radical and according to some people how controversial the changes are:
(Bed and Breakfast Association Under The heading, New Fire Precautions Regime.)

I entered in our F.R.A. (Fire Risk Assessment) that our staff had been trained in what to do in the event of a fire. You may think when the fire officer came to review the F.R.A. he would of asked a member of the staff if that was the case.

No! Not a tall. He didn’t have to, because I had entered it in my Fire Risk Assessment.

The Fire Officers main concern is that you have a Fire Risk Assessment, be it just a slip of paper, it's not so much as what’s on it, but the fact that you have produce one when asked for it.

Any advice comes in the form of suggestions. i.e.

We have a rear door to the building in which we leave the key to lock and unlock when needed; the Fire Inspector asked me.
“Do you always keep the key in the door”
“Yes we do”
“Ok what you need to think about is if there's a fire at the front of the house people will run to the back door and some one for some reason as removed the key it could cause a problem”

And that's it; your not told to do somthing about it, but to consider the situation.

The Fire Inspector had a good point and I agree with the new laws that the responsibility should be that of the person who is actually in charge of the building.

However I do believe that there could be conflicting advice, as in the old law, by individual Fire Inspectors; that said, it will not take away from where the responsibility lies.