Fire Door Inspection Scheme Introduced
How safe are your fire doors?
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to all buildings other than domestic housing, but includes common areas of apartment dwellings and flats, and replaces 118 pieces of previous fire legislation, including the old fire certificates which are no longer valid.
The law now shifts responsibility from the fire authorities for fire safety to whoever has day-to-day control of premises. Each business must appoint a responsible person, who could be the owner, manager, facilities manager or an expert consultant appointed to manage the fire risk to the building, including those using the premises and its immediate surroundings.
The emphasis is on preventing fires and reducing risk and a detailed risk assessment must be carried out by the responsible person to ensure that adequate attention has been paid to all aspects of fire safety management; including active and passive fire protection measures; signage; means of escape and evacuation procedures. It is also crucial to show that maintenance or servicing has been carried out and any repairs executed promptly.
Failure to comply with The RRO can result in significant fines, indeed one nationwide chain store was ordered to pay in excess of 500,000 after a fire at one of its stores in which there were no fatalities or serious casualties due to failures under the RRO. This particular case established an important principal. In RRO cases where the absence of death or serious injury is the result of pure chance and where the breaches are not causative of fire, the key question is the extent to which a failure to identify and address risk should be punished.
To quote from the Judgement €We accept that the sentencing judge was intending to impose a fine which reflected the seriousness of the offence in its creation of the risk to visitors. The magnitude of that risk was demonstrated, not by a death or serious injury, but by a fire in which death or serious injury was fortuitously avoided€.
So how can we help?
When fire extinguishers need to be inspected or serviced it goes without saying that a properly qualified engineer would be employed as he has the necessary skills.
We are the people to advise you on the suitability of your fire doors.
Cavanagh Consulting are members of the BWF, the body responsible for managing the FDIS (Fire Door Inspection Scheme) and Ian Cavanagh, our lead technical consultant holds the DipFD, ideally placing him to advise on and if required carry out fire door inspections on your behalf.
Our fire door inspection service is highly regarded in the industry.
We can prepare for you a detailed report on every fire door in your building, summarising the serviceable condition of each doorset and recommendations for any maintenance or remedial action required, suggestion suitable fire door manufacturers or installers if required. This report can then be included in or referred to in your risk assessment and prove invaluable in complying with the RRO.
We are also available to carry out inspections on new or recent installations to verify that specifications have been adhered to. It has been estimated that around 3,000,000 fire doors / doorsets are produced in the UK each year and it is perhaps reasonable to assume that new doors would be fit for purpose, however in our experience this is often not the case.
The initial inspection will include a one - off detailed survey of all fire door assemblies which will be recorded on the FDIS database for future reference. Subsequent periodic inspections (FDIS recommend 6 monthly) will call upon this initial survey information and limit the inspections to confirmation that no components have been changed in addition to the usual maintenance and operational checks.
If you wish to discuss the matter further in absolute confidence please call or email Ian as detailed below.
We look forward to proving the value of our service to your organisation.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to all buildings other than domestic housing, but includes common areas of apartment dwellings and flats, and replaces 118 pieces of previous fire legislation, including the old fire certificates which are no longer valid.
The law now shifts responsibility from the fire authorities for fire safety to whoever has day-to-day control of premises. Each business must appoint a responsible person, who could be the owner, manager, facilities manager or an expert consultant appointed to manage the fire risk to the building, including those using the premises and its immediate surroundings.
The emphasis is on preventing fires and reducing risk and a detailed risk assessment must be carried out by the responsible person to ensure that adequate attention has been paid to all aspects of fire safety management; including active and passive fire protection measures; signage; means of escape and evacuation procedures. It is also crucial to show that maintenance or servicing has been carried out and any repairs executed promptly.
Failure to comply with The RRO can result in significant fines, indeed one nationwide chain store was ordered to pay in excess of 500,000 after a fire at one of its stores in which there were no fatalities or serious casualties due to failures under the RRO. This particular case established an important principal. In RRO cases where the absence of death or serious injury is the result of pure chance and where the breaches are not causative of fire, the key question is the extent to which a failure to identify and address risk should be punished.
To quote from the Judgement €We accept that the sentencing judge was intending to impose a fine which reflected the seriousness of the offence in its creation of the risk to visitors. The magnitude of that risk was demonstrated, not by a death or serious injury, but by a fire in which death or serious injury was fortuitously avoided€.
So how can we help?
When fire extinguishers need to be inspected or serviced it goes without saying that a properly qualified engineer would be employed as he has the necessary skills.
We are the people to advise you on the suitability of your fire doors.
Cavanagh Consulting are members of the BWF, the body responsible for managing the FDIS (Fire Door Inspection Scheme) and Ian Cavanagh, our lead technical consultant holds the DipFD, ideally placing him to advise on and if required carry out fire door inspections on your behalf.
Our fire door inspection service is highly regarded in the industry.
We can prepare for you a detailed report on every fire door in your building, summarising the serviceable condition of each doorset and recommendations for any maintenance or remedial action required, suggestion suitable fire door manufacturers or installers if required. This report can then be included in or referred to in your risk assessment and prove invaluable in complying with the RRO.
We are also available to carry out inspections on new or recent installations to verify that specifications have been adhered to. It has been estimated that around 3,000,000 fire doors / doorsets are produced in the UK each year and it is perhaps reasonable to assume that new doors would be fit for purpose, however in our experience this is often not the case.
The initial inspection will include a one - off detailed survey of all fire door assemblies which will be recorded on the FDIS database for future reference. Subsequent periodic inspections (FDIS recommend 6 monthly) will call upon this initial survey information and limit the inspections to confirmation that no components have been changed in addition to the usual maintenance and operational checks.
If you wish to discuss the matter further in absolute confidence please call or email Ian as detailed below.
We look forward to proving the value of our service to your organisation.
