A frequently asked question by landlords, building owners and those accountable for managing fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk evaluation?
In this blog post, we’re going to reveal why it is possible– but may not necessarily be the appropriate conclusion to make. Who are we? Fire Risk Assessment
The short answer is ‘Of course – you can conduct your own fire risk assessment’, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from Googling an online template for a fire risk evaluation and filling out the fields to describe your building, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited knowledge you have. If in doubt get in touch Fire Risk Assessment
You could possibly even do your own analysis, perhaps even enroll in a fire safety program. This may have been appropriate prior to 2005, as the fire service used to check out your property and carry out an audit to deliver you with a fire certificate. Having said that, since then, the requirements and law for fire safety became much more stringent and things changed dramatically.
The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was actually introduced in 2006– was designed to reform fire safety in England & Wales, to bring in the requirement for a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.
The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were certainly brought under scrutiny, but the interpretation has since been made very clear:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk evaluation can only be carried out by a competent person.
‘Competent’ can be defined as someone with sufficient training, qualifications, experience and attitude. A competent person needs to have received specific training in relation to fire risk analyses, they must have some form of qualification to back that up, experience in assessing your type of property, and the proper approach to ensure they’re able to communicate the results effectively. All of the above can be achieved for your fire risk analysis by using outside assessors.
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