Fire Safety Law -
If you own,manage or operate a business you will need to comply with fire safety law
New buildings
Architects, when drawing up plans for new buildings or extensions to existing buildings, must take account of the use the building is being put and the relevant fire protection measures. This involves complying with current building regulation, particularly Part B of those regulations, which deal with fire safety.
Ensuring you remain compliant with the law.
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
The Order applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than private dwellings (see dwellings) and it is your responsibility to ensure your premises or place of work is safe from the effects of fire.
Types of premises include:- shops, offices, factories, warehouses, hotels, hostels, guesthouses, care homes, nursing homes, schools, universities, village halls, night clubs, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, pubs, restaurants, churches, marquees, open air events, fairgrounds, sport stadia, museums, hospital, healthcare premises, surgeries, airports, railway stations, bus stations, horse stables.
Compliance
The emphasis for compliance is, just like Health and Safety, risk assessment. Enforcement of the Order lies with the local fire and rescue service (the enforcing authority) that have the responsibility to ensure your fire risk assessment and the actions taken to act upon the findings of that assessment. In the event they deem your actions unsuitable or insufficient they have a range of options from prosecution or issuing an enforcement through to an improvement plan.
It therefore makes sense to get it right. It pays to ensure that any fire safety advice is compliant with the risk and that the recommended remedial advice is both correct and cost effective.
By employing a competent person from JTP Associates you can eradicate the pitfalls and ensure full compliance. Our risk assessors are fully conversant with the legal requirements and the additional guidance that will not always be readily available to you.
Dwellings
Whilst single dwellings are exempt from the Order, any common areas of flats and houses of multiple occupancy (HIMOs) are not. Landlords have a duty to undertake a fire risk assessment in the same way as employers. Also in this type of premises there is a responsibility for the safety of each tenant under the Housing Act 2004.
News Item
Prosecutions.
Fire Safety in hotels has come under the regulatory spotlight, with two prosecutions in England, against a hotel company in London and a manager in Shropshire, resulting in significant fines.
In the first case, Awan Investments Limited, which ownes Ventures Hotel in west London, was order to pay over £27,000 in fines and costs for serious safety breaches.
The lack of a suitable fire risk assessment, blocked emergency exits and wedged open fire doors were among the problems found by fire officers.
In a separate case, a hotel manager in Shropshire was ordered to pay £5355 in fines and costs after a fire alarm failed.
The premises was fitted with a full automatic fire alarm and detection system, but it had not been properly tested and was not in working order.
Information provided by Fire Prevention Association.
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