The Five Steps

Fire risk assessment follows a five-step structure that holds across premises types.

• 1. Identify the fire hazards — sources of ignition, sources of fuel, and sources of oxygen beyond ambient air.
• 2. Identify the people at risk — everyone in and around the premises, with particular attention to those who need help.
• 3. Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect — evaluate the risk, remove or reduce the hazards, and protect people through detection, warning, escape, firefighting and training.
• 4. Record, plan, instruct and train — record the significant findings and the actions, produce the emergency plan, and train everyone.
• 5. Review — regularly, and whenever anything material changes.

Who is responsible

Responsibility usually rests with the employer, the occupier or the person with control of the premises — often termed the responsible person. That duty can be informed by a consultant but cannot be transferred to one: buying an assessment does not discharge the duty, and an assessment that is filed unread discharges nothing at all.

Suitable and sufficient

The test is whether the assessment identifies the significant fire risks, reflects the premises as they are actually used, and leads to precautions that are adequate. Length is irrelevant; a generic template populated from a walk-round of a different building fails on every count.