Posted By shaun mckeever
Peter

I will try and explain briefly but I have gone through this in a previous posting.

The lost means of escape was through a neighbouring property. The neighbour decided that they did not want their next door neighbour traipsing through their property, so they withdrew access rights. This left a single internal staircase serving 8 floors with only single door protection to the staircase and no detection system.

It is the job of a fire risk assessor to determine if the means of escape is adequate. If the fire risk assessor says that an 8 storey building with only one internal staircase is adequate then I believe he is failing in his duty unless there are alternative measures in place to safeguard the escape route, which in this case there was not. A prohibition notice could have been served on the upper floors unless immediate action was taken to safeguard the occupants in the event of a fire on the lower floors. Temporary arrangements were put in place immediately together with a strategy for future improvement. An improvement notice was issued stating the improvements that were required.

I believe the view of the client was that the original assessor had not given good professional advice to the point that he failed to recognise there was a serious risk to life.

You are right it may be just a threat but I only pick up snippets from the client and don't see him on a day-to-day basis.

No doubt you will have more questions but I can't devote too much time to this because I am supposed to be at work.

Posted By shaun mckeever
Peter

The client referred to the fire authority by phone. The fire authority said you need a fire risk assessment. The fire risk assessor said everything was ok. The client listened to the 'expert'.

It is a bit difficult to make alternative arrangements when one day you have a route and the next day you don't.

I am very familiar with Piccadilly area and in particular Regent Street with the problems you highlighted. I used to be the inspecting officer for that area. But don't blame me for the problems there. They existed long before I was on the scene!

Posted By Peter Leese
I think your last paragraph is being very kind Ken. I see it as a client hitting out in frustration whatever the real causes of that.

The one fact we do know is that there was a fire certificate and during the time frame we are talking about it was valid, and the client was responsible for complying with it.

What we don't know is the pressures put on the assessor by the client or whether the information he/she had was complete. However, and I don't know the outcome in this case, my advice would have been at the very least to install detectors to provide an early warning.

Now going back to the Piccadilly area, there are numerous properties with this scenario and I remember recommending that detection facilities were installed in some I'd been asked to assess. A year later there was no change. Reason - cost. Imagine in central London the cost of a detection system compared to the value and rental income of a 6 storey building full of rented offices.

Posted By Ken Taylor
Thanks, Peter. I don't often get accused of kindness - even on this forum.

Posted By Jeannette
Hi,
Would someone kindly send me a fire risk assessment form? also if you have, I need an administration of medication, record of incidents, record of accidents, emergency procedures, and complaints procedure. Wow! what a list would be very grateful.
Regards
Jeannette

Posted By Crim
Hi Safetynut

Thanks for the further info. I have looked but will still use my 5 point assessment. I'm confident that I will cover all your 11 points within my risk assessment.