These large warehouse fires in East London were attended to by over 100 London Firefighters over the 21st and 22nd September. The blaze spread between warehouses which would have meant the need for a large-scale evacuation. Hopefully nobody was hurt in the blaze.
It goes to show the importance of considering adjacent and attached buildings when carrying out a fire risk assessment. Many fire risk assessors only look at the building they are assessing which is correct in one sense, but you should also consider the building as a whole. By considering the construction of the building, age, party walls and how buildings are connected you can then imagine how a fire in one building could potentially spread to another building. How many floors? Are there hidden voids? Areas where a fire could spread undetected? Is automatic detection required/provided and it is linked? Does it need to be?
What about the perimeter of the building? Is a neighboring property leaving combustible materials and waste nearby or skips to close to the building. If that caught fire, could it ignite the building you are assessing? All questions that a competent fire risk assessor will consider. By asking the responsible person of the building you are assessing to speak to the company next door and get that skip moved, you could just be preventing a fire from happening. You can’t measure that as you won’t know but don’t under estimate the little suggestions that could be making a world of difference.
For all London Fire Risk Assessments please visit:
https://www.whalefire.co.uk/london/fire-risk-assessments-london.aspx
https://uk.style.yahoo.com/several-warehouses-burn-east-london-072442487.html
