Posted By sian Hi Can anyone help me, I need to carry out a fire risk assessment on my school, I write risk assessments everyday but dont know where to start or how to lay it how, Do I have to include plans of buildings etc.... any feedback would be great... Thankyou

Posted By sian Thanks for that shiela, im currently downloading it now.. Some spare time reading!!

Posted By Jason McQueen For that very reason Im contemplating contracting it out to a decent third party..

Posted By jackw. Hi, you cant carry these out unles you are properly trained and understand what you are about. Particularly in the more technical areas. I have emailed you a copy of one of ours for a large property. Cheers

Posted By shaun mckeever As an ex-firefighter I'm not sure if I should consider that an insult terry - the suggestion that I am irrelevant! Of course I know you didn't mean it like that. The new regs do require firefighters to be considered as part of the fire risk assessment. It does not mean that you should provide Bretahing apparatus or protective clothing in case there is a fire but you do have to ensure fore example dry rising mains are maintained, firefighting lifts are in working order and fire protection measures are in place so that fire does not spread unseen. Schools are notorious for having voids where fire can spread unseen and break out in another part of the building causing firefighters to be trapped. I speak from experience!

Posted By terryt Shaun, Don't take offence, the Reg Reform Order states that firefighters carrying out their duties fighting fires are not 'relevant people' within the terms of the order - it says nothing about ex-firefighters. As schools don't have sprinklers or smoke control systems I don't think Sian has to worry about those. I still say that in the majority of circumstances a group of people from within an organisation can provide a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment. It is obviously in the interests of consultants specialising in this field to give the impression that 'normal' health and safety people aren't capable of doing a fire risk assessment, but this isn't the case - do it yourself. If you're sure you can't do it yourself, go on a course to learn how to do it.

Posted By Eric Beach Dear Sian I have a risk assessment document that I use for the office and clinic bases that we use in our local NHS properties. Given that you have read what the guidance says about escape routes, I guess it would probably ask the sort of questions that you would need for a school [and I'm an ex-science teacher]. Happy to send you a copy if you want it.

Posted By Crim Please don't think I'm just being smart with this answer but anyone assigned to undertake a risk assessment must be competent and it's the employer's responsibility to ensure that! If you cannot carry out the fire risk assessment due to lack of knowledge, experience, training etc. it's up to you to speak up to let the employer know that he needs to be more careful in future. You are obviously out of your depth in this area - peoples live are at stake here! The best people to carry out fire risk assessments are serving and ex fire fighters who have the necessary knowledge and experience of real fires and the resulting tragedies. They can judge hazards and risks associated with fire because "they have been there and got lots of tee shirts etc". The forthcoming change in legislation is an example of a change for the worse not better. I've been doing fire risk assessments since the Workplace Regs came out in 1998 and I wonder why there are now - all of a sudden - lots of people asking the same questions about fire risk assessments.

Posted By Crim Hi Shaun, at least we agree that you need "Depth" to be competent about Fire. However one receives the depth whether through first hand experience or in the classroom it is necessary for competence to be proven.