If you are the responsible person on your premises, which if you run a business you are, it is a legal requirement that you undertake fire safety assessments on a regular basis. It is no doubt made with the best of intentions and makes a lot of sense, but the problem that you have is how to go about it. Like very many other things, undertaking a risk assessment is something that needs training and knowledge, because it can be complicated. There are many things that you simply may not know.
You can certainly go online and search for some assistance and you will find quite a lot of information – perhaps too much information. Local Fire Authorities have produced a list of things that you need to check which runs to several pages long, and frankly, if you read through it all it will probably have your head spinning. Like many other things, undertaking a fire risk assessment is a skill that has to be learned. If you are an amateur, you just can’t do it successfully.
There are so many things which might not occur to you. For instance, you may have three members of staff who have been trained as Fire Wardens, which is great. But what happens if one of them leaves your organisation, or gets promoted to another department? You may realise that you have lost, say, an engineer and need to replace him, but it may not even cross your mind that now you only have two people trained and you need to replace them for that as well.
All sorts of other things can happen. You may install a new piece of machinery which could alter your fire safety procedures, but you are probably concerned with training your engineers how to use it. You could alter your production routines. You might start to use new products which are flammable. You could change where and how flammable materials/substances are stored.
All these sorts of things have to be accounted for, but when you are busy running a business on a day to day basis they may very well not be at the forefront of your mind.
This is why you are much better off having us carry out your fire risk assessment, because it is what we do. Our team are all competent fire risk assessors and have received all the relevant training to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments. Every business is different, but we know what to look for, where to look, and the right questions to ask. We also provide you with the written report to keep and monitor the recommendations that we may make for you to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.