A commonly asked question by property managers, building owners and those accountable for handling fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk analysis?
In this article, we’re going to explain why it is feasible– but may not actually be the proper choice to make. Who are we? -
The short answer is ‘Without a doubt – you can execute your own fire risk evaluation’, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from Googling an online design template for a fire risk evaluation and filling out the areas to define your structure, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited understanding you have. If in doubt get in touch -
You could possibly even do your own analysis, perhaps even go to a fire safety program. This may have been acceptable prior to 2005, as the fire service used to visit your property and carry out an audit to deliver you with a fire certificate. However, since then, the criteria and law for fire safety became much more stringent and things changed significantly.
The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was effectively introduced in 2006– was designed to remodel fire safety in England & Wales, to bring in the need for a suitable and sufficient fire risk evaluation to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.
The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were undoubtedly brought under scrutiny, but the definition has since been made very obvious:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk evaluation can only be carried out by a competent expert.
‘Competent’ can be defined as someone with enough training, qualifications, experience and attitude. A competent person needs to have acquired specific training in relation to fire risk assessments, they must have some form of certification to back that up, experience in assessing your type of property, and the proper approach to ensure they’re able to communicate the findings effectively. All of the above can be achieved for your fire risk evaluation by using outside assessors.
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