I wanted to write an article about consistency in the field of fire safety and how I feel this has fluctuated in recent months, most likely influenced by the terrible Grenfell disaster. As an accredited fire risk assessor and Operational Watch Commander in the fire service, I am fortunate in that I get to see both approaches to fire safety, from an enforcement angle and also from the point of view of a life safety risk assessor. Dealing with operational fire incidents has given me the insight to be able to understand how fires can be developed, contained and extinguished; whilst carrying out fire risk assessments has given me a better understanding of what is likely to occur should a fire take place.
The last few months has been very challenging for everybody involved in the fire safety sector and also, from my experience, a particularly busy time for the fire service, partly owing to the excessive hot and dry conditions around the country. There seems to have been a large number of serious building and rural fires in recent months, although this could also be due to a greater emphasis from the press on highlighting these since Grenfell. As any operational Fire Service Officer will tell you, the risk from fire has always been severe and as in any other walk of life, unfortunately it sometimes takes a large-scale disaster to highlight deficiencies that were beforehand, unknown or not so well understood.
I think it is fair to say that there has always been an element of inconsistency in the field of fire safety, arising from the unavoidable inherent risk involved in having different assessors evaluate and conduct a fire assessment. For example, 3 or 4 different fire risk assessors can be sent to the same building and could produce as many different (although hopefully only slightly) assessment reports. To some extent that is human nature, everybody sees things slightly differently but the key outcome should be that the client receives a consistent and professional fire risk assessment report in line with current guidance and legislation, and that all major issues are identified within the report.
On the other side is the regular visits to high risk premises by the Fire Brigade Fire Safety Officer whose job it is to identify any failings during that visit and make recommendations as appropriate. This is normally issued through a letter to the client, although can sometimes lead to an Enforcement Notice or Prohibition Notice if serious failings are observed. What I am noticing recently though is the lack of consistency from Officers where for example, a building that has been given approval for several years in a row, is suddenly hit with an enforcement notice or letter demanding fire precautions are improved. Again, this could be the result of the greater emphasis put on fire safety in recent months as mentioned above.
Where failings are identified either from an unsuitable fire risk assessment or if record keeping has worsened compared to the prior visit, it is only right that these failings are addressed. What is of concern though is that sometimes different advice is sometimes provided by different fire brigade officers for the same building. Of course, there are sometimes various solutions to the same problem and this is not necessarily wrong, however what is paramount is that the client receives a level of consistency that is not too dependent on who they are dealing with. Furthermore, as a Company Director, I totally understand and have experienced how standards of assessors and reports can differ greatly.
This article is in no way written with any intention of placing blame on any sectors in the fire safety industry and is purely a topic I strongly believe is worthy of discussion. From my experience, I have realised that we must put ourselves in the shoes of the client and understand the confusion caused by having different views and opinions from different officers on the same issue, including receiving one glowing fire risk assessment report and one damning report a year later, when very little has changed.
This is partly linked to the Grenfell incident whereby a much greater emphasis (rightly so), has been placed on fire safety and doing everything we can to protect the occupants of higher risk buildings. This may be able to be improved through greater communication between the Fire Service and Risk Assessors as well as having improved standards internally within our organisations to ensure the right standard for our clients is delivered.
Another improvement could arise from understanding the difference between a life safety and a property protection fire risk assessment. A life safety fire risk assessment should ensure all serious fire safety issues are managed, and excellent managerial and evacuations procedures are put in place. It may however, recognise that modern building control regulations are not retrospective and therefore not make the same level of recommendations that a property safety assessment could depending on what the purpose of the audit is. Without a doubt there is overlap between the two, but there is one major difference– a life safety assessment must ensure, to the very best of its ability, the safe evacuation of the occupants in the building. For example, a property protection risk assessment might recommend a fire alarm system is linked to an independent control monitoring centre. This would mean the fire brigade will automatically attend overnight when a property is unoccupied whereas a life safety assessment may not need to recommend this to meet its objective. This may depend on the requirements of a clients’ insurance company so again we need to be sure of the purpose of the assessment and make sure everybody is aware of this from the start.
The point I am making is that fire risk assessors and fire brigade officers need to make it clear what the purpose of their visit is and we need to work together as an industry to achieve a greater level of consistency because at the end of the day it is people’s lives at stake, and we need to do everything we can to provide them with the consistency they deserve.
All of the fire risk assessments at Whale Fire and now fully audited and reviewed before being sent out to ensure we have that consistent approach – http://www.whalefire.co.uk/contact.aspx
Homepage – www.whalefire.co.uk
