Posted By Charley Farley-Trelawney Need some assistance ladies and gents, I am a H&S manager for a fairly large business park and have to deal with tenants sharing our main office block, I was amazed today to speak to the MD (one of our tenants) who runs the food and banqueting side of things in one of the buildings, I was assessing the correct extinguishers on site and noticed we were around 10 short of what we should have, (despite FRA by previous H&S manager) the MD stated that it made no difference his instructions to the staff in the kitchens was to ignore the fire fighting equipment and vacate the building! When I queried his instructions he replied that he saw no law to suggest that his staff should attempt to fight a fire, or how many extinguishers are installed (despite being trained) I asked him if it was ok to burn down a 150,000 sq ft building from a chip pan fire, and he stated the insurance would pick up the tab! Now I realise what the Regs state and the new ones for July, I was merely assessing that we had the correct amount of fire fighting equipment and that competent people were suitably trained, again, he shot me down in flames...(grrrrrr I hate puns) and again said that the extinguishers were for the fire brigade and not us. Can I get some help to convince this guy, any suggestions folks?

Posted By Martyn Hendrie I suspect that you and the MD are talking at cross purposes. I agree with Frank the purpose of the extinguisher is to provide person who may be trapped a means of suppressing a fire and escaping. However, not wanting his staff to fight fires is no excuse for not providing the appropriate extinguishers that may afford a means of escape

Posted By Laurie Just as a matter of interest, I was once seeking professional advice on a similar matter and I was advised, by my local Fire Prevention Officer, that there is, in fact, no statutory requirement for any undertaking to have any fire extinguishers at all! I assume that there must be some some specialised areas where this does not apply, but I was totally gobsmacked to learn this! Laurie

Posted By Martyn Hendrie It would also be an interesting exercise trying to get a fire certificate.

Posted By Heather Aston Fire Certificates are set to disappear for most premises soon under the Regulatory Reform Order. Then it really will be down to risk assessment. Heather

Posted By Charley Farley-Trelawney Thanks for all your help and assistance, it is indeed an emotive subject! Charley Farley-Trelawney

Posted By shaun mckeever mmmmm quite an emotive subject this. In a previous life I was the Station Officer of Red Watch Soho. This is the watch that lost their previous station officer at a fire at Kings Cross. Firefighters do put their lives on the line when necessary. My view on this subject is 'is it really necessary to allow a small fire to get out of control when a simple action may save a few lives let alone property and jobs'. Of course a large or rapidly growing fire should be left to the professionals, but the fact is most fires grow from very small ones and in the majority of cases most are dealt with without any fire brigade involvement. Common sense should be applied here. No one should be expected to risk their lives and firefighters should not have to be put in a position of risking their lives because someone could not take simple appropriate action. Perhaps if we were to think of that very small fire at home - would you really walk away from it and leave it to the fire brigade? I personally don't think so and I have probably been to more fires that have been put out by the occupants than most of the posters here.