Hi guys........any advice on this matter?

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your response. I have recently had a fire risk assessment completed for site by 3rd party but it did not include this area or equipment. ???

I'm conducting the investigation at present and have made the telephon report the HSE to inform them prior to sending the RIDDOR report. It appears that it was a mechanical failure that has caused the fire but i have requested we bring in the manufacturers and service contractors to provided specialist advice. The equipment was serviced only 2 weeks ago and all other services as per PSSR on air receivers are current. The other main issue i can see is there is no suppression or detection within this area. The electrical supply could have been isolated from transformers external to the area apparently.

Dependant on the premises there may be no requirmenet at all for fire detection. But given the fact you have air compressors on site then we are talking a substantial premises the bare minimum would be manual call points through out the premises. Do you have smoke detectors else where on the premises as plant rooms would be one area i would expect to be covered (or where a fire could start undetected). as for fire suppression then no unless you already have fire suppression on site then it would be wise to extend it to the plant-room but otherwise you would rely on someone spotting the fire and raising the alarm or the detector head with in plant-room detecting the fire.

You need to establish what went wrong with the equipment as normally y they would have inverters on the motors to prevent them overloading etc but as you say you will need to wait on the report.

As for isolation of equipment this isn't likely to be covered in a fire risk assessment as this would be down to your own site procedures as access should be controlled to transformers but they should have seen the equipment and identified the lack of fire detection in the area. also a site plan is a good idea for the fire service identifying transformers and isolation of other services like gas and drainage system of the site in case polluted water escapes.

A fire risk assessment is looking at life safety not necessarily property safety although that will come into it but it very much looks at ensuring everyone can escape from the building. You can expect a visit from the enforcement officer soon especially if the fire fighter weren't happy with how things went during the fire.

Phil

Phil, property protection and life safety are integral. I know what you mean but people must consider both together when fire risk assessing.

Safetyman - what happens next?

You will probably be visited by the local fire safety officer who will ask to see your fire risk assessment. If it does not cover the boiler room area where the fire was then you could be in for a prosecution on the grounds that it was not "suitable and sufficient"? This is usually the case when employers are prosecuted, if you look at fire prosecutions they are usually after a fire.

I suggest you urgently review the fire risk assessment and if in doubt seek advice from another fire risk assessor. If you need to take further action try to start before the fire officer visits, you will then be seen to be attempting to rectify any previous errors.

Good luck.

Hi, thanks for your responses. I know the Fire Assessor and he is certainly a competent and thorough assessor. I have made contact to ask to review our FRA and develop it into a more specific assessment of the site and processes in light of this event. However it does appear this fire is the result of a mechanical failure that has resulted in this event. Not an excuse as we should have detection and suppression due the location and promixty of other hazards and remote location. We are trying to progress a very poor site safety culture and mgt system so this is not a shock.

I don't think it is likely they will go for prosecution straight away if there was any sort of failing then they would serve an enforcement notice. more likely they will will send a letter stating what the issue is and what they would require for it to be corrected (which has already been identified install a smoke detector in all plant-rooms).

I completely agree with this and recognise that the primary prupose of most FRAs is life safety. My concern was more that Gavin implied that his assessor had not even included thia area in the risk assessment. A good fire risk assessment should look at every area of a building - plant rooms, voids, cupboards under the stairs even external sorroundings. You never know what you might find in these hidden places!

If your assessor did look in all areas Gavin then no problem. He may well not have thought it appropriate to recommend AFD and of course would not have been expected to see anything wrong with the compressor under normal circumstances - assuming it was not surrounded by combustible storage or anything similar, which ultimately contributed to the growth and spread of the fire.