The FIA has released an introduction video to fire risk assessments, covering how a risk assessment is carried out and the dangers of using a risk assessor who hasn’t been assessed by a third party.
Colin Todd, who chairs the FIA’s risk assessment council and is considered one of the foremost experts on risk assessment in the UK, is among those interviewed in the video. He explains:
A risk assessment is basically a structured look at the premises and their fire risk. If we think of risk as having two components — likelihood of fire and consequence of fire — having dealt with the likelihood of fire by addressing the fire hazards, the things that can cause fire, the risk assessor would then look at the measures to keep people safe if fire does occur.
These are measures such as means of escape, emergency lighting, fire alarm systems, fire extinguishers, and so on.
Ben Bradford from the fire risk consultancy BB7, also appears in the video. He explains that, in addition to being a legal requirement, a fire risk assessment is an essential building block in ensuring the life safety of an organization’s staff. He emphasizes the importance of appointing a third-party certificated risk assessor, because a failure to do so could cost your business a huge amount of money.
There’s a cost of competence, but there’s a cost of incompetence, and if an organization makes the mistake of appointing incompetent fire risk assessors, they may find themselves spending more on fire safety than they necessarily need to.
Maybe because the fire risk assessors are overly cautious and don’t understand risk, and as a result they may specify more fire precautions than is necessary. But what is more worrying is what that fire risk assessor has missed. They may well be overspecifying some fire safety precautions, but they might have missed a hazard or something that has the potential to cause harm that’s really serious, and that’s the more worrying point.
Steve Michael, a fire risk assessor, takes us through some of the key steps in a fire risk assessment process that BB7 members take:
Only after these steps are taken do the assessors begin to look at the more specific components in the building.
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
That was a very good video presentation. Just like gas safe plumbers there needs to be national accreditation but may I make the following points to consider. there are many (mostly ex fire service fire safety officers) who meet the competency council criteria but are not third party accredited. Here is a scenario; so you leave the fire service or from another fire safety field of work and provide fire risk assessments for small companies say the local factory or leisure centre? for best practice you keep up to date by belonging to professional bodies (IFE,FPO etc.etc) at at least £100 a throw,… Read more »
This is a great site and usfeul to keep in touch with what’s happening in industry. The video clip was useful. I was surprised however that no mention was made of the main tool to assist an assessor when completing an FRA has to be the most appropriate guidance document(s) for the premises under scrutiny. This sets the benchmarks to measure against when quantifying life safety risk within. The start point in the assessment process has to be the use to which the building is put and I think this should have been emphasised more clearly although I accept it… Read more »
Thanks for the positive feedback on the site and the FIA’s video, I’ll make sure they take a look at these comments, as there’s some really interesting discussion here.
I’d just like to say thank to everyone who’s provided comments and feedback on the FIA FRA video. We are always keen to find different ways of getting the message about fire risk assessments out there and any future videos will take into account your thoughts.
That’s good to know. I will keep watching and add to the debate. I am passionate about the fire safety order and I fully support the need for competent assessors to be able to give cost effective advice regarding premises. Through that competence risk appropriate measures should be identified and this will surely help employers, occupiers and owners to achieve the required level of safety in their premises without breaking the bank. Of equal importance is the competence of the fire authority inspecting officers who should recognise the need to meet RPs half way and look to generate cooperation before… Read more »
Certainly agree with that last point. Where the responsible person has clearly made a good, well-informed effort to ensure an adequate level of fire safety the inspectors should be willing to accept that and help them if there is only some minor infringements. However, it’s difficult to draw a line, and so I think fire service inspectors err on the side of caution and assume the worst of a building owner.
Hey Mister Littlebit, great comment, thanks for that. Must confess I was so busy last week I didn’t even have the time to read it fully, but catching up now! I know what you’re saying, it’s a costly business being a good risk assessor that can also represent value for money. I wonder if the blame for this should lie with the Government. Would it help if they were to change their tune a little and start underlining the importance of fire risk assessments and explaining to people why it might be better to pay a little more for a… Read more »
I’m with both of you guys, @Robert Brown and @Tornado. I think fire service inspectors should also work with the firm or responsible personnel in charge of safety, instead of having both parties have a go at each other’s throats.