A regularly asked question by property owners, building owners and those accountable for handling fire safety is– can I do my own fire risk evaluation?

In this short article, we’re going to discuss why it is feasible– but may not necessarily be the proper conclusion to make. Who are we?  Fire Risk Assessment

The short answer is ‘Without a doubt – you can perform your own fire risk evaluation’, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from Googling an online template for a fire risk evaluation and filling out the fields to describe your structure, what you do, and any risks you can identify from the limited expertise you have. If in doubt get in touch  Fire Risk Assessment

You could possibly even do your own research, perhaps even go to a fire safety course. This may have been satisfactory prior to 2005, as the fire service used to check out your property and carry out an audit to provide you with a fire certificate. But, since then, the demands and law for fire safety became much more strict and things changed considerably.

The law for fire safety – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which was actually introduced in 2006– was created to remodel fire safety in England & Wales, to bring in the requirement for a suitable and sufficient fire risk evaluation to be carried out for all non-domestic premises.

The words ‘suitable and sufficient’ when used in law, were certainly brought under scrutiny, but the definition has since been made very clear:
A suitable and sufficient fire risk evaluation can only be carried out by a competent man or woman.

‘Competent’ can be defined as somebody with enough training, credentials, experience and attitude. A competent person needs to have obtained specific training in relation to fire risk analyses, they must have some form of qualification to back that up, experience in assessing your type of property, and the right approach to ensure they’re able to communicate the findings effectively. All of the above can be achieved for your fire risk evaluation by using external assessors.

Find out More about our Fire risk assessments  Pyro Fire