Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service today launched a new initiative to try and educate landlords in their duties to carry out fire-risk assessments.
Fires in private, rented accommodations are around seven times more likely to occur than in private accommodations occupied by the owner, within Devon and Somerset, according to figures released by the fire service.
And Devon and Somerset FRS also revealed that fires in private, rented accommodations are increasing while fires in social housing are decreasing.
To improve the education available for landlords of properties in the region, the fire service is introducing an education programme called “Firemark” designed to provide landlords with a “basic knowledge” of how to complete a fire-risk assessment.
In most parts of the country a landlord is required to carry out a fire-risk assessment, but the fire service is concerned that there is no legal requirement to provide smoke alarms. They feel that in the absence of such legislation that they needed to provide a scheme to promote the benefits of proactive fire safety in private, rented housing.
Use of the Firemark
The education surrounding Firemark is a short programme that is designed to be carried out quickly and gives a basic understanding of the fire risks in a home, and some basic remedial actions a landlord can take.
Many of these are explored in a web-based, virtual house walkthrough, which highlights some of the problems a home could face. These are mostly pretty obvious for anyone with a solid grounding in and experience of fire safety techniques, such as making sure a smoke alarm has batteries, keeping them away from places where false alarms are common, and ensuring that furniture is a safe distance from any fireplaces.
But where the interactive house does work is in getting a landlord to start thinking about risks and the proper process of writing out risks and remedial actions, something that is built on in the pack that landlords take away from an education session.
The chairman of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority, Mark Healey, said:
Being a landlord brings a responsibility to ensure my tenants are safe. Firemark provides landlords with the skills and knowledge to take basic steps to achieve this for all their properties. Through my role with the Fire and Rescue Authority and Fire Kills campaign, I am all too aware of the devastation a fire can cause. I am proud to be associated with ‘Firemark’, it really does have the potential to protect lives and livelihoods.
What was strangely unclear from Devon and Somerset’s press release was how the actual Firemark logo will be used. It would seem logical that the Firemark would then be used by landlords who have successfully completed the training to show that they are aware of the importance of fire-risk assessments.
But there was no mention of this, and indeed if it were used by landlords and estate agents on their promotional material, there would not necessarily be any legal obligation to prove that they had completed the training.
Asked if the logo would be distributed among people who have completed the training, Devon and Somerset FRS told IFSEC Global:
Attending a Firemark session will result in the provision of a certificate of attendance. This will confirm that a landlord has been provided with the knowledge and skills to make their properties (and therefore tenants) safer. We would expect Landlords to use this as evidence that they take fire safety seriously. We will be promoting Firemark to landlords, letting agents and other interested groups, e.g. Environmental Health departments as a programme to drive down fire risk.
When I saw the announcement for the Firemark I assumed it would serve something like the Gas Safe register or the BSI’s Kitemark, so I’m a little dubious as to how much of an impact Firemark will have, but one can’t argue that anything that improves the knowledge of persons responsible for fire safety is a positive move.
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It is nice to see that Devon and Somerset are doing something to address the issue of HMOs but what is needed is a National Initiative to get to the heart of the problem. A National Fire Mark which is insisted upon by the letting agents; is where it needs to go. Without a National approach and without buy in from the agents, many HMOs will remain as fire hazards waiting to be exposed by a fire. Potentially any fire in this type of property could have tragic consequences and the more that can be done to reach Landlords… Read more »
Absolutely agreed, Simon, thanks for your comment. It’s a small step and I hope it’s one that others follow in. After all, with the job losses facing various fire services in the country, this kind of education is one of the easiest ways to further reduce fires.