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According to the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety order 2005, every building property needs a fire risk assessment. We have already discussed the importance of fire safety risk assessment in our previous blogs, and today we will discuss the fire safety risk assessment steps that need to be followed to carry out a fire risk assessment at any residential or commercial premises.
This guide will give you the knowledge of the steps involved in the fire safety risk assessment process, so that you can do an initial risk assessment of your home, office or any building belongs to you by yourself. So, let’s get into the guide,
There are 5 steps in fire safety risk assessments. When all of these steps are followed, the risk of an incident is reduced.
First step of a fire risk assessment is to identify the risk of fire hazards which depends on three things
Now, the ignition source can be anything that can help the fire start. In any premises, there are certain sources of heat like
Any material that can easily burn in a fire or help the fire to spread is also a fire hazard. In a fire risk assessment, we identify those materials that work as fuel for a fire.
Here are some of the common materials that are found on the premises that can easily catch fire,
Fire comprises mainly three ingredients Oxygen, fuel, and heat. If any of this is missing, a fire won’t burn. Therefore, it is as important to identify the sources of Oxygen as it is to identify the sources of heat and fuel. Oxygen supports the chemical processes that occur during the fire and causes a lot of heat.
Now usually, there are two sources of Oxygen that are commonly found on any premises
The second and the most important step of fire risk assessment is identifying the people at risk. Also, the main motive behind the assessment is to save the lives of people at risk. In this step, we calculate the total number of people working or living on that premises and categorize them into different sections.
Here are some of the different sections in which we categorize the people to identify which group of section need more attention when a fire starts to burn:
We divided the third step into further 3 sub-steps
In this step, we evaluate all the possible sources through which a fire can start because it is not possible that any building or premises have no chance of a fire starting.
According to our evaluation, the fire usually starts in three ways:
By any smoke material
When any equipment was not properly maintained
When property or building is set to fire
In this evaluation, we consider all the possible situations like
After evaluation, we need to remove or reduce those hazardous materials that can cause a fire. For priority which part need to remove or reduced first, a fire risk assessment needs to be taken out. Firstly, we need to remove or reduce those hazards that are substituted by other hazards and can cause more fire like flammable or toxic substances.
In this step, you need to consider ways to
Now, to protect people from risk, here are some of the practices that need to follow
We will break the fourth step into further 4 steps as we did in the third step
The record is the significant findings, or you can say a report about what we have identified during our fire risk assessment like
There is no such fixed format for record-keeping. It’s up to you how you make it. It should only hold some basic information like an emergency plan with a maintenance plan for equipment and some training guidance for the people.
The word plan here indicates the “emergency plan” that deals with any fire situation.
The emergency plan should be detailed and complied with after evaluating the sources of fire hazards, fuels, and Oxygen.
After a fire risk assessment is carried out, clear and relevant information should be given to the employees or staff living or working in that premises on how to prevent fire and which escape will be followed.
Provide fire safety training to every employee so that they don’t get panic in case of any fire. The Training should:
The last step is the “review” of the assessment. You need to constantly review your fire risk assessment and update it accordingly.
Reasons for review include
Q1. How many steps make up a fire safety risk assessment?
Ans. There are 5 steps of performing a fire safety risk assessment that are as following:
Q2. What measures are included in the quick workplace checklist?
Ans. Here are some of the measures that need to be taken
Q3. What comes first in the hierarchy of fire protection?
Ans. Fire extinguishers are the first thing that comes into the hierarchy of fire protection.
Q4. What does a fire risk assessment do?
Ans. A fire risk assessment identifies all the sources of fire hazards and people at risk. It comes up with a detailed report that includes all the information about reducing, removing, and protecting people from risk in case of any fire incident.
Q5. What is the second step of a fire risk assessment?
Ans. The second step of a fire risk assessment is identifying the people at risk.
So, here are the five steps in the fire risk assessment that needs to be followed. However, you can do a fire risk assessment yourself after reading this guide. But, seeking professional help is always better, especially when it’s about the safety of human life.
If you need any help related to fire risk assessment, asbestos surveys, and legionella risk assessment, you can contact us at support@firesafteyriskassessment.co.uk. We will be happy to help you. Thank you.
Sabrina Harper nearly caused an accidental fire once in the kitchen that could’ve engulfed the whole house. She survived that experience and vowed to increase general awareness about fire risk. She joined Fire Safety Risk Assessment and has been trained as a professional fire risk assessor, which has allowed her to help countless people and households mitigate the threat of accidental fire that could’ve caused considerable loss of life otherwise.
The keen passion of Fire Safety Risk Assessment is to offer professional services, delivered in a timely manner. For all businesses, commercial premises & landlords, FSRA keeps your businesses safe controlling the risk of loss from fire hazards, asbestos risks and from legionella bacteria.