A generally asked question by landlords, building owners and those accountable for managing fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk analysis?
In this article, we’re going to discuss why it is possible– but may not necessarily be the right conclusion to make. Who are we? Pyro Fire
The short answer is ‘Of course – you can carry out your own fire risk analysis’, there is nothing stopping you from Googling an online template for a fire risk analysis and filling out the fields to define your structure, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited knowledge you have. If in doubt get in touch Pyro Fire
You could even do your own analysis, perhaps even attend a fire safety training course. This may have been satisfactory 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 demands and law for fire safety became much more strict and things changed dramatically.
The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was actually introduced in 2006– was developed to change fire safety in England & Wales, to bring in the need for a suitable and sufficient fire risk analysis to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.
The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were definitely brought under scrutiny, but the interpretation has since been made very obvious:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk analysis can only be carried out by a competent professional.
‘Competent’ can be defined as someone with adequate training, certifications, experience and attitude. A competent person needs to have received specific training in relation to fire risk analyses, they must have some form of qualification 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 analysis by using outside inspectors.
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