Follow These Steps To Conduct Your Own Fire Safety Assessments
At Nomico Fire & Security, we understand the importance of fire-safe practices and offer a range of solutions to keep premises protected at all times. Fire risk assessments are a vital process for commercial premises, working to ensure that everything operates per current fire safety regulations and delivers the protection you need in the worst circumstances.
We provide a comprehensive fire safety assessment service and can help get your property prepared for any upcoming inspections. Despite how vital these assessments are, many people are still unfamiliar with the process and do not know what happens during them.
While fire safety assessments need to be performed by official inspectors, like those on our team, understanding what goes into this assessment and how they operate can be useful as a business or property manager. With the right skills, you can perform preliminary fire risk assessments and continually ensure your property is up to standard.
In this guide, we are sharing everything you need to know about conducting fire safety assessments, how the process works, and what the results mean so you can best prepare your premises.
What Is The Purpose Of Fire Safety Assessments?
Fire safety assessments are a regulatory requirement for all kinds of premises across the UK. These are required for all non-domestic premises and should be performed regularly to ensure you are compliant with the current fire safety regulations.
They are not just a requirement, but a proactive method to keep your premises safe. Fire risk assessments determine how prepared your site is for a fire and whether this can be effectively managed using your current processes.
The more frequently fire safety assessments are performed, the better prepared you will be for an emergency and avoid any regulatory issues. Failing to comply with the current regulations is not just dangerous, but can lead to legal fines and even time in custody based on the severity so should be avoided at all costs.
How To Conduct A Fire Safety Assessment
There are several steps to conducting a fire safety assessment which you can do independently to prepare your premises for official inspections and ensure that your fire safety solutions are up to date.
Step One: Preparing For The Assessment
The first step in conducting a fire safety assessment is gathering all the relevant information about your premises. Previous records of fire safety assessments, as well as documents pertaining to the layout of the premises, current fire safety systems and updates, will be inspected by officials during the process.
When performing your own fire safety assessments, spend some time checking that your documents are in order and up to date. These records are needed as proof of your fire safety measures, as well as informing the process of the ongoing assessment.
Understanding the layout and history of your premises can inform the inspection and make it easier to perform.
Step Two: Identify Fire Hazards
One of the main components of fire safety assessments is highlighting any fire hazards present across the premises and how these can be improved. There are three categories of fire hazards that you will need to inspect and record:
- Sources of Ignition: These are any elements that could ignite a fire, such as electrical equipment, open fires, and overheated machinery. Flammable materials and their current storage will also need to be recorded in this category.
- Sources of Fuel: Any material that can fuel a fire will need to be recorded in this category, including paper, furniture, chemicals, and waste.
- Sources of Oxygen: Although oxygen is naturally present in the air, certain processes or equipment may increase its availability across your premises. These can fuel a fire more rapidly and need to be noted in this part of the assessment, such as oxygen tanks and ventilation systems.
Step Three: Identify People At Risk
Once you have identified the fire hazards across your premises, you now need to take note of the people at risk of these. There are likely various people who are at risk of fire across your premises, especially in large places of work or public spaces.
When determining who is at risk of fires during your fire safety assessments, consider factors such as:
- Mobility issues of people present
- Any disability access across the premises which may hinder the safe evacuation of everyone
- High-traffic areas, such as reception spaces and entrances, which can put more people at risk
- Any vulnerable groups, such as children or the elderly
These all need to be considered to determine what kind of risks are present in your property at any given time.
Step Four: Evaluating Current Fire Safety Systems
This is part of the process where you need to access your fire safety systems and ensure that they are compliant with the current regulations, as well as being suitable to combat the hazards previously recorded.
Several main forms of fire safety systems should be present across public-accessed spaces, and these will need to be independently evaluated to determine whether they are functioning as intended. Systems can include:
- Fire alarms and other detection systems
- Firefighting equipment, such as fire extinguishers and sprinklers
- Emergency exits and evacuation plans
All of these need to be regularly tested and evaluated to ensure they are effective during an emergency, as well as suitable for your specific property. For example, you need to ensure to have enough fire sprinkler heads to cover high-risk zones; fire extinguishers are in date; and emergency exits are kept clear and visible at all times.
Step 5: Recording Findings And Improvements
All findings from your fire risk assessment should be recorded and kept organised, as these will be assessed during the next inspection. The documents should record any fire hazards found during the assessment, as well as records of fire safety system testing and the improvements made following this work.
When performed by officials, such as those on our team, fire safety assessment documents will also provide professional recommendations for the premises which need to be fulfilled ahead of the next inspection. These will address any issues that have appeared during the assessment and bring your premises back up to regulations once more.
Even when performing fire risk assessments yourself, it is vital to record all your findings and the improvements made as this is evidence of your compliance with regulations.
Step 6: Reviewing And Reassessing
Fire safety assessments are not a one-time event as they should be an ongoing routine for your premises. It is recommended that you perform regular assessments of fire hazards and fire safety equipment across your premises independently, as well as hire professionals for the official inspections every year.
It is a good idea to support a culture of fire safety across the premises, by encouraging ongoing tests and improvements. All of the work you do now will ensure maximum safety and the number of lives saved during the worst-case scenarios.
Conclusion
Fire safety assessments are vital to operating safe premises and they can be done more frequently than the official tests. Conducting fire safety assessments independently allows you to play an active role in the safety of your premises and ensure you are continually in line with the current fire safety regulations.
Nomico Fire & Security can perform your next fire safety assessment, as well as deliver the essential maintenance to fire alarms and other systems when needed.
Contact Us Today
To hire our team for your next fire safety assessment or to learn more about our services, please contact us.
