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Big fine for property company that failed to implement the requirements in the action plan in the fire risk assessments they had carried out.   Fortunately it was a near miss on this occasion and everybody managed to escape but you can’t put a price on carrying out suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments and making sure you follow through with the recommendations.

For a pragmatic, professional fire risk assessment service with a common sense approach please get in touch.

ire doors play a vital role in maintaining good compartmentation. 

Personally I think three months checks are a little over zealous.  It should be more of a risk based approach depending on the building.  Compartmentation plays a massive role of course and can limit the spread of fire and regular checks of course should be carried out.  But four times a year? 

The issue I have sometimes have had with fire door contractors is when they scare clients telling them every door in their building (residential and commercial) has to be a fire door, taking no note of the life safety fire risk assessment or actual risk.   

Granted fire risk assessors sometimes ask for a full fire door survey or are vague so it’s a two way misunderstanding on occasions.

Personally I would prefer to see much more emphasis on educating tenants and ensuring they have a good understanding of how fires start and what to do in a flat to prevent one the best you can. 

For me a good fire risk assessment looks at the first few minutes should a fire start.  The right evacuation policy.  The right education.  Let the fire doors play their role but let’s watch them do it from outside the building.

Another good example to prove that if you ignore fire safety laws and just play ignorant, you could end up with a huge fine and possibly even a prison sentence.

No fire risk assessment, fire doors held open, fire escape routes seriously blocked and no fire alarm system amongst the many fire safety deficiencies found at this hotel.  

Having a fire risk assessment carried out under Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is a statutory requirement under this piece of fire safety legislation.  If this is carried out correctly and you follow the reports action plan you won’t find yourself in this position.

I might be wrong but is it necessary to ask all these students to find alternative accommodation. I don’t know exactly what the fire safety deficiencies are but is there not an automatic fire alarm system and comprehensive emergency plan in place? It seems to be a bit of a knee jerk reaction by management and I always like to think there are alternatives available. Could new fire safety measures like increasing the detection not be introduced over a short time period rather than cause such a disturbance. Asking students to all find new places to lives will be logistically very difficult and stressful and I wonder whether there are more common sense approaches that should be considered.

I wrote a post recently about schools and some of their fire safety failings. Here is a recent school which was handed out two £10,000 fines. At what price will you play ignorant with fire safety laws and fire risk assessments.