Posted By TBC Difficult one Jason. There are 57 varieties of Fire risk assessments on the go at any one time. I attend a Fire College course some years ago and since then have seen many attempts at it. They range from one page? to one I saw recently for a large banking group of about 60 pages. I produced one myself and have found it has been accepted by a number of Fire Authorities with no problems. Common sense and following the five steps does the job in most cases. No doubt you will get others who disagree and say you should get in 'competent' help - but what is that and how can you be sure. Check out the other threads on this subject. Regards

Posted By Ken Taylor The FPA form to which TBC refers can be helpful for some small businesses but may not be considered by fire authorities to be an adequate assessment of the fire risks within the specific premises. In addition to the limitations of the list, with its simple yes/no/not applicable options and failure to address any additional fire hazards peculiar to the workplace, there is no provision for including information as to how the employer operates a fire safety system (ie control measures, monitoring, etc). Our local fire authority require such additional information as: Brief description of the premises use occupancy, structure and composition; specific fire risks present (including residential accommodation); name of fire controller/ wardens; appended copy of fire emergency plan; whether liaison has taken place with the fire authority; (currently) whether a fire certificate applies; where fire procedures are displayed; how have personnel been informed of fire procedures; the location of the fire assembly points; information on the fire warning system and whether this is connected to the fire brigade; who tests the alarm call-points weekly; date of last staff fire training; adequacy of lighting for escape; frequency and date of last fire drill; maintenance of access and facilities for the fire brigade; details of any automatic fire detection; who carries out fire checks at the end of the working day; where flammables and LPG are stored; details of quantities of combustible materials present; whether there are flammable wall or ceiling coverings or displays on escape routes; what hot work permits are required for and who monitors this regime; when the electrical installation was last checked; when the portable electrical equipment was last PAT tested; date of last test of lightning protection. To this must be added individual risk assessments for any identified significant fire risks within the premises. Some form of assessment of the overall risk level is then needed and a list of any remedial action required. There has been considerable variation in fire risk assessments as, although Fire Safety: An Employer's Guide' does what it says there has been no agreed standard for its format or content. However, I am informed that, to address this situation, the British Standards Institution has now published Publicly Available Standard PAS 79. It costs £99 and I haven't seen it yet.

Posted By Alan F Cox Always difficult one to advise on as the normal definition of "competence" could fit almost anyone that has had some health and safety or fire training experience or carried out a related inspection. Do you employ the ex Fire Officer who may or may not have had some Fire Prevention Training or do you go for a highly qualified Health and Safety Officer. In addition to this there is the person that has none of these backgrounds but has perhaps come from the Fire Industry and has seen a better future in this area. Always a difficult choice and in my 40+ years in the industry I have seen many appalling situations. This story relates to an interesting situation that I recently experienced when looking for a company to provide a maintenance service for fire fighting equipment for some 2000 buildings. I visited the company and sat down with the MD who was obviously keen to get the business and informed me about all of his company accreditations and his existing contracts. He went on tell me about how he had also started doing Fire Risk Assessments (FRA) and how well it was going - in fact that well that even the Sales Manager was doing them. When I asked about competence there was a long silence followed by we "do it in house". I then asked to see the FRA for that building and was informed that "they had not had time to do it." I subsequently asked to have a tour of this new 2 year old facility and firstly went in to the design office and asked a member of staff what he would do in the event of fire to which he replied "Shout Fire" - when I asked why he would not use the Fire Alarm he stated "we don't have one" - sure enough he was right. When I went into the factory I found a Fire Exit locked, inadequate ventilation in the paint spray area, poor housekeeping etc etc. As you can probably imagine the business did not go to this company but they could be doing your FRAs. If you want your FRAs done properly I can recommend Colin Todd of C S Todd & Associates Ltd 74 Crooksbury Road, Runfold, Farnham GU10 1QD Tel: 01252 783484. Alan F Cox

Posted By Craig Catterick As per the reply from J Knight On my last fire visit from the area Fire Safety Officer he gave me the book called MEANS OF ESCAPE FIRE SAFETY AUDIT A guide to Basic Fire Risk Assessment Sponsored by JANITE price £9.95 This has been of great help and as it came from the fire department it must be OK. It has tables that can be copied and used in all businesses. The book can be purchased from www.means-of-escape.com

Posted By James Goodstadt Jason, The Institute of Fire ENgineers has a register of Fire Risk Assessors if you want to hire someone. All assessors are allowed to register based on competency as judged (I understand) by a panel. Try www.ife.org.uk (I think) or google "institution of Fire engineers" Cheers James