Understanding Fire Risk Assessments and Their Role in Fire Suppression

Fire Risk Assessment Regulations in the UK

A fire risk assessment is a process that has to be carried out by a responsible person related to the building. Responsible person doesn’t just mean someone sensible, but is a specific individual or group designated as the one responsible for overseeing a buildings fire safety. This list can include:

• Landlords
• Managing agents
• Management companies
• Facilities or risk manager

The responsible person is in charge of making sure that a fire risk assessment is carried out, appropriate measures including fire suppression systems are implemented in response.

There is a large range of considerations and responsibilities the responsible person will have to carry out and keep in mind, available on the UK government website, but the process essentially condenses down into five distinct steps:

1. Identify any fire hazards
2. Determine who could be at risk
3. Evaluate the risks and mitigate them as much as possible
4. Record your findings (a legal requirement for any business with 5 or more people), prepare an emergency plan, train your employees
5. Review this process and update your fire risk assessment report regularly

The Importance of Custom Designed Fire Suppression Systems

A fire risk assessment sets you up for a fire suppression system designed bespoke to the requirements of your building and its intricacies. By having an in-depth overview of your property, your extinguishing system provider can make informed decisions on how your fire suppression system would be best implemented.

Some of the benefits of a bespoke fire suppression system are:

• Stopping fires before they become catastrophic
• Protecting your building, employees, and assets
• Ensuring the safety of surrounding buildings and the general public
• Supplying the right extinguishing for the appropriate source of fire
• Ensuring you don’t waste time and money on implementing a fire suppression system that’s faulty or inadequate for your needs

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1.     Performing a Fire Risk Assessment

The first step is, of course, performing a fire risk assessment to see what your building needs. This will provide insight on factors such as:

• Building size and Fire Class requirements for materials
• Building classification
• Intended use
• Likely fire hazards present in each room
• Escape routes

These insights, among many others, provide the foundations for your fire suppression system’s planning and implementation. By analysing the results of your fire risk assessment, we can design the best fire suppression system to help you protect your property and comply with the law.

2.     Commissioning an Adequate Fire Suppression System

Once the details have all been put together, it is time to turn them into a functioning fire suppression system. To do this, you’ll need to outsource to a reliable extinguishing service provider.

At Sovereign, we can take the details garnered during your fire risk assessment and create an actionable design, bespoke to the needs and hazards of your business. This will be part of an ongoing process to provide the greatest levels of fire suppression potential in the event of a fire.

We design, install, maintain, and service fire suppression systems at any stage of their implementation – contact us today!

3.     Installing Your Fire Suppression System

After finalising the design, we can move on with the installation. At Sovereign, we have the flexibility to install our own designs or those that have been provided by another designer, allowing you to get the best value for your time and the best protection for your assets.

We install your system with care, making sure each aspect is up to standard. Our fully certified engineers rigorously check that the system is being installed correctly, in the right place, and that it will function if and when it is required.

4.     Ongoing Maintenance for Your Fire Suppression System

Although much care is taken during the installation process, your fire suppression system will still require ongoing maintenance and inspections.

While actual maintenance is unlikely to be required very often, it is important to regularly survey your fire suppression systems. This isn’t as involved a process as a full fire risk assessment, and as such can be done much more frequently without any hassle.

By performing these surveys and maintenances routinely, your building will receive the utmost levels of protection and compliance, ensuring your systems will function as intended in the unfortunate event of a fire.

Find out more about servicing and maintenance from Sovereign Extinguishing >

Different Types of Fire Hazards

There are many different kinds of fire, stemming from their source point and the material sustaining them. To contend with the type of fire you’re dealing with, you’ll need an appropriate fire suppression method in your system. A fire risk assessment will identify the various fire hazards that are present in your building, allowing you to plan accordingly.

Electrical Ignition

This is one of the most common causes of fire. There are three main reasons why an electrical fire might break out:

1. Faulty equipment
2. Improper handling of equipment
3. Workplace accidents

While many of these are out of your control, making sure you have the proper foresight and the appropriate extinguishing systems to respond will stem the damage these fires may cause.

Heating

Appliances like gas stoves, radiators, boilers, and fireplaces all contribute to fires caused by heating. To contend with this, adequate ventilation and fire detection systems are required in relevant rooms to prevent or detect a fire, alongside a fire suppression system which matches the expected source.

Open Flames

While not all businesses are likely to have open flames in their workplace, a fire risk assessment will highlight whether or not you do. It will then give insight on the measures you must take to prevent a fire from occurring, as well as the extinguishing requirements in the case one does break out.

Other Ignition Sources

There are other possible causes of fires like smoking, static electricity, or improper disposal of combustible waste. Most businesses have dedicated smoking areas far away from any fire hazard, but this is still an important thing to consider when you’re planning your building’s design and its fire suppression system.

Finding every one of these aspects and detailing how to respond to them is the role of a fire risk assessment, feeding directly into the design of your fire suppression system.

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