A frequently asked query by landlords, building owners and those liable for managing fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk assessment?

In this blog post, we’re going to discuss why it is feasible– but may not actually be the appropriate conclusion to make. Who are we?  Fire Risk Assessment

The short answer is ‘Yes – you can conduct your own fire risk assessment’, there is nothing at all stopping you from Googling an online template for a fire risk analysis and filling out the fields to describe your property, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited expertise you have. If in doubt get in touch  Fire Risk Assessment

You might even do your own analysis, perhaps even enroll in a fire safety course. This may have been appropriate prior to 2005, as the fire service used to visit your building and carry out an audit to provide you with a fire certificate. Having said that, since then, the demands and law for fire safety became much more stringent and things changed dramatically.

The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was in fact introduced in 2006– was created to remodel fire safety in England & Wales, to bring in the requirement for a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.

The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were undoubtedly brought under examination, but the definition has since been made very obvious:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk analysis can only be carried out by a competent person.

‘Competent’ can be defined as somebody with enough training, qualifications, experience and attitude. A competent person must have obtained specific training in relation to fire risk evaluations, they must have some form of qualification to back that up, experience in assessing your type of building, and the proper attitude to ensure they’re able to communicate the results effectively. All of the above can be achieved for your fire risk assessment by using external assessors.

Find out More about our Fire risk assessments  Fire Risk Assessment