Good practice: a five-step checklist to fire risk assessments –
step five
In the fifth and final part of a five-part
series on fire risk assessments, Connect looks at step
five – review.
Over the past few issues, Connect has looked at the four steps
for completing a fire risk assessment:
Now, we’ll look at perhaps the most important element of a fire
risk assessment – review. To assess how effectively you and your
organisation are controlling the risk of fire, you should
constantly monitor what you’re doing. If you’ve any reason to
suspect that your fire risk assessment is no longer valid, or there
are significant changes to your premises that could potentially
affect your fire precautions, then you’ll need to review your risk
assessment and, if necessary, revise it.
The reasons to review your fire risk assessment could
include:
- changes to work processes, including the introduction of new
equipment
- alterations to the building, such as the internal layout
- substantial changes to both furniture and fixings
- the introduction, increase of storage or change of use of any
hazardous substances
- the failure of fire precautions, for example fire alarms,
sprinklers or ventilation systems
- significant changes to quantities of stock, for example
paper
- a significant increase in the number of people present in a
building or the presence of people with disabilities.
Ideally, you should consider the potential risk of any significant
change before it’s introduced. It’s usually more effective to
minimise a risk by making sure, for example, that there is adequate
and appropriate storage space for an item before bringing it into
your premises.
Checklist
- Have staff members received adequate fire safety training?
- When was the last time you carried out a fire drill?
- Are workers aware of specific tasks they need to do if there’s
a fire?
- Are you maintaining a record of training sessions?
- Do you carry out joint training and evacuation drills in
multi-occupancy buildings?
- If you use or store hazardous substances, have staff received
adequate training?
Remember, you don’t need to amend your fire risk assessment for
every trivial change but you should consider whether a change
introduces new hazards and, if they’re significant, do whatever you
can to control and minimise the risks. You should keep your
assessment under review to make sure that the safety measures are
still working effectively. You may also want to re-examine the fire
prevention and protection measures at the same time as you review
your health and safety assessment.
If a fire or ‘near miss’ happens, this could indicate that your
existing assessment may be inadequate and you should carry out a
re-assessment. It’s good practice to identify the cause of any
incident and then review and, if necessary, revise your assessment
in the light of this.
You should now have finished the five-step guide to completing a
fire risk assessment.
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