It is a structured look at your premises that answers four questions: what could start a fire, what would it burn, who would be harmed, and what is already in place to prevent or contain it. Everything after that is the gap between those answers and where you need to be.
In most premises the duty to assess fire risk and keep that assessment under review sits with the responsible person — usually the employer, owner or occupier. It is not a one-off exercise. It needs reviewing when the building changes, when the use of a space changes, and periodically even when nothing has.
The output matters as much as the survey. An assessment that identifies twenty issues without saying which one to fix first is not much use to anyone. Ours are ranked, so you can work down the list in a sensible order and show what you have addressed.
Sources of ignition and fuel, and how they sit next to each other. Means of escape — routes, widths, final exits, whether a door that should open actually opens. Emergency lighting and signage along those routes, including whether the signage still makes sense after a partition went up.
Detection and warning: whether coverage matches the layout, whether the alarm can be heard everywhere including plant rooms and toilets, and whether anyone would know what to do when it sounds. Fire doors and compartmentation — wedged doors, damaged seals, holes cut for cabling that were never made good.
Extinguisher provision and siting: the right type for the risk present, in a position someone would reach on the way out rather than deeper into the building. And the people: staff, visitors, contractors, anyone with impaired mobility, and whether anyone sleeps on the premises, which changes the picture considerably.
A written report identifying the hazards, the people at risk, the precautions in place and the actions required, each ranked by priority with a suggested timescale. It is written to be read by a manager, not only by a fire engineer.
You are under no obligation to have us carry out the remedial work. Where you do want it done, we can fit alarms, emergency lighting, signage and extinguishers — but the assessment is deliberately written so it stands on its own, and we will tell you where an action needs a builder or an electrician rather than us.
Almost every premises where people work, visit or sleep needs one, and the duty generally falls on the employer, owner or occupier as the responsible person. If you are unsure whether your premises is caught, tell us what it is and how it is used and we will give you a straight answer.
Annually is the usual working assumption, and immediately whenever something material changes — a layout alteration, a change of use, new equipment or processes, or after an incident or near miss. A partition wall going up is enough to invalidate parts of an assessment.
You get a prioritised list rather than a pass or fail. Most reports contain a handful of urgent items and a longer tail of smaller ones, and the point of ranking them is that you can deal with the urgent items now and plan the rest.
No, and the report is written on that basis. We are happy to quote for anything within our scope, and equally happy for you to take the report to somebody else or handle it in-house.
Typically whoever has control of the premises — the employer in a workplace, the owner or managing agent in a communal building, the occupier of a leased unit. In shared buildings it can be split between parties, which is worth establishing in writing before anyone needs to rely on it.
