Are You Responsible for Fire Safety?

If you are responsible for fire safety, do you know what you are responsible for?

The responsible person is someone who has control (or a degree of control) over the premises or fire-prevention systems within the premises. If you are the responsible person, you must make sure that everyone who uses your premises can escape if there is a fire. You need to consider anyone who might be on your premises, including employees, visitors or members of the public. You need to pay particular attention to those who may need special help, such as elderly or disabled people or children.

You must:

- carry out a fire-risk assessment and identify possible dangers and risks
- think about who might be particularly at risk (including disabled employees or people working with flammable substances)
- avoid and/or reduce the risk from fire, as far as is reasonably possible
- implement suitable fire precautions to deal with any risks that remain
- make sure there is protection if you use or store flammable or explosive materials have a plan to deal with emergencies
- record your findings and review them as and when necessary

As the responsible person, you must ensure that the fire-risk assessment is carried although you may appoint some other competent person to do the actual assessment.

The enforcing authority (usually the local fire authority) must be satisfied with your fire safety arrangements. If they are not, they will tell you what you need to do. If they find major problems they may serve an enforcement notice on your business requiring you to improve safety (or they can even restrict the use of your premises or close them altogether in certain circumstances).

If you need help, contact us.