Fire Risk Assessment (FRA)

Alliance Fire Safety’s trained assessors will provide your company with a risk assessment report, this report will identify the principles of the approach to fire safety, which has been adopted for the premises.

It is intended that the fire risk assessment among other things will be used as a reference document when changes or maintenance are carried out in the premises.

The Fire Risk Assessment is a legal document as required by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It should be read and fully understood by the Responsible Person(s) and kept in a safe place such as your Emergency Plan file.

While there isn’t a fixed period for reviewing your fire risk assessment, it is best to do so on an annual basis. (by the responsible person or persons) and when any physical or procedural changes are made to or in the use of the premises.

Following any implementation of any recommendations made, the risk the premises should be maintained at, or reduced to at least an acceptable level.

Nine steps to Fire Risk Assessment:

Step 1

The Fire Risk Assessor will require any relevant information about the premises, the processes carried out in the premises, and the occupants of the premises. Information about previous fires will be of value to the assessors, particularly where the organisation has multiple sites with common operations.

Most of the relevant information will be obtained by interviewing the appropriate representative or the management prior to carrying out a physical inspection of the premises. At this stage, it is important that all of the relevant information is obtained about the occupants of the premises, particularly those especially at risk in the event of fire.

Step 2

The second step is fire hazard identification and the determination of measures for the elimination or control of the all/any identified fire hazards. This will normally involve a combination of interviewing management and inspection of the premises.

Step 3

The third step is to make a independent assessment of the likelihood of fire. This will be based primarily on the findings of step two. However the assessment of the probability of fire will also take into account any relevant information in step 1.

Step 4

The fourth step is to determine the physical fire protection measures relevant to protection of all people in the event of a fire. The required information can again, be obtained partly from the initial discussion with management but will primarily be obtained by inspection of the premises so that the standard of fire protection can be ascertained.

Step 5

The fifth step is to determine all relevant information about your fire safety management. This will primarily involve discussion with management, but might also involve examination of documentation such as records of testing, maintenance, training, drills, etc.

Step 6

The sixth step is to make a (subjective) assessment of the likely risks and consequences to all occupants in the event of fire.

This assessment will take account of the fire risk assessor’s opinion of the likelihood of various fire scenarios, the extent of injury that could occur to occupants in these scenarios, and the number of people affected. This assessment is primarily based on the assessor’s findings in steps four and five, but will take account of information obtained in the first step.

Step 7

The seventh step is to make a full assessment of the fire risk and to decide if the fire risk is acceptable. The fire risk is assessed by combining the likelihood of fire and the overall consequences of a fire.

Step 8

The eighth step is to design an action plan, this is necessary to address shortcomings in the fire precautions in order to reduce the fire risk. Even if the fire risk is assessed as acceptable there is often a need for minor improvements in fire precautions.

Step 9

The ninth step is the fire risk assessment which is subject to periodic review. Review of the fire risk assessment is necessary after a period of time defined in the fire risk assessment, or at an earlier time if changes take place, or if there are other reasons to suspect that the fire risk assessment is no longer valid, such as if a fire has occurred.