An introduction to business fire safety and the law

A fire risk assessment is an organised and methodical look at your premises, the activities carried on there and the likelihood that a fire could start and cause harm to those in and around the premises.

The aims of the fire risk assessment are:

• To identify the fire hazards.
• To reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm to as low as reasonably practicable.
• To decide what physical fire precautions and management arrangements are necessary to ensure the safety of people in your premises if a fire does start.

Find out more information

You can find out more information about how to carry out a fire risk assessment in our fire risk assessment guide.

We cannot conduct a risk assessment for you. If you feel that your premises are too complex, or you feel that you would prefer to have a professional advise you, then you can use the Institution of Fire Engineers Fire Risk Assessor Search.

Good management of fire safety in your premises is essential to ensure that any fire safety matters that arise are always effectively addressed. In small premises this can be achieved by the manager or owner responsible for maintaining and planning fire safety in conjunction with general health and safety.

In larger premises, it is good practice for a senior manager to have overall responsibility for fire safety. It may be appropriate for this responsibility to be placed with the person designated with overall responsibility for health and safety.

An organisation’s fire safety policy should be flexible enough to allow modification. It should be recognised that fire safety operates at all levels within an organisation and therefore those responsible for fire safety should be able to develop, where necessary, a local action plan for their premises.

Find out more information

You can find out more information about best practice and managing fire safety here.

There are a wide range of measures you can take to make your business safer from fire. These can give your more notice should a fire occur but also they will help keep your staff and customers safer in the event of a serious fire.

Find out more information

To find out more information about fire detection and warning systems, fire extinguishers, fire doors and emergency escape lighting, click on the links below:

• Fire detection and warning systems
• Fire extinguishers
• Fire doors
• Emergency escape lighting

There’s a price to pay for false alarms. In some businesses the disruption they cause has cost as much as £120,000 a year. Worse, they can cost lives, because fire-fighters can’t be in two places at once. We will no longer send fire appliances to calls from buildings where the only information available is that a ‘fire alarm is sounding’. Correct application of the advice below will ensure that, in the event of a real fire, the full attendance is sent immediately.

To prevent the disruption and the risk posed by false alarms, and ensure the appropriate attendance is sent, we’re asking building managers to investigate the source of fire alarm actuations before fire crews turn out, provided this process can be undertaken safely.

Whether it’s a fire or false alarm, always ensure the building is evacuated in accordance with your emergency procedure whenever the alarm activates.

When staff investigate, they should leave the building by the nearest fire exit and summon the fire service using the 999 system if at any time they so much as think they’ve seen signs of a fire. We’re not asking them to be absolutely certain; it’ll be our job to check reports of fire or physical signs of fire.

Find out more information

You can find out more information about how to reset your fire alarm, download our guide.