A commonly asked question by hotelkeepers, building owners and those responsible for dealing with fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk assessment?
In this post, we’re going to explain why it is conceivable– but may not normally be the proper choice to make. Who are we? Pyro Fire
The short answer is ‘Certainly – you can conduct your own fire risk assessment’, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from Googling an online design template for a fire risk assessment and filling out the areas to define your structure, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited expertise you have. If in doubt get in touch Pyro Fire
You might even do your own research, perhaps even enroll in a fire safety course. This may have been appropriate prior to 2005, as the fire service used to check out 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 strict and things changed drastically.
The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was actually introduced in 2006– was created to reform fire safety in England & Wales, to introduce the requirement for a suitable and adequate fire risk assessment to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.
The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were undoubtedly brought under examination, but the interpretation has since been made very obvious:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment can only be carried out by a competent individual.
‘Competent’ can be defined as someone with enough training, qualifications, experience and attitude. A competent person must have obtained specific training in relation to fire risk analyses, 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 results effectively. All of the above can be achieved for your fire risk assessment by using external assessors.
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