IDENTIFY FIRE HAZARDS
FIRE TRIANGLE
For a fire to start, three things are needed:
• a source of ignition;
• fuel; and
• oxygen.
If anyone of these is missing, a fire cannot start. Taking measures to avoid the three coming together will, therefore, reduce the chances of a fire occurring.
The remainder of this step will advise on how to identify potential ignition sources, the materials that might fuel a fire and the oxygen supplies that will help it burn.
Identify sources of ignition
You can identify the potential ignition sources in your premises by looking for Possible sources of heat which could get hot enough to ignite material found in Your premises.
These sources could include:
• cooking equipment, hot ducting, flues, and filters;
• smokers’ material, e.g. cigarettes, matches, and lighters;
• electrical, gas or oil-fired heaters (fixed or portable), room heaters;
• hot processes, e.g. welding by contractors;
• faulty or misused electrical equipment;
• light fittings and lighting equipment, e.g. halogen lamps or display lighting;
• hot surfaces and obstruction of equipment ventilation;
• central heating boilers;
• naked flames, e.g. candles or gas or liquid-fuelled open-flame equipment;
• flares, fireworks and pyrotechnics; and
• arson.
Indications of ‘near-misses’, such as Scorch marks on furniture or fittings,
Identify sources of fuel
Anything that burns is fuel for a fire. You need to look for the things that will burn reasonably easily and are in enough quantity to provide fuel for a fire or cause it to spread to another fuel source. Some of the most common ‘fuels’ found in a large place of assembly are:
• flammable liquid-based products, such as paints, varnishes, thinners, and adhesives;
• flammable liquids and solvents, such as alcohol (spirits), white spirit, methylated
spirit, cooking oils and disposable cigarette lighters;
• flammable chemicals, such as certain cleaning products, photocopier chemicals
and dry cleaning products that use hydrocarbon solvents;
• flammable gases such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and acetylene;
• displays and stands;
• costumes, drapes and hangings, scenery and banners;
• packaged foodstuffs;
• packaging materials, stationery, advertising material and decorations;
• plastics and rubber, such as video tapes, polyurethane foam-filled furniture, and
polystyrene-based display materials and rubber or foam exercise mats;
• upholstered seating and cushions, textiles and soft furnishings, and clothing displays;
• litter and waste products, particularly finely divided items such as shredded paper and wood shavings, offcuts and dust accumulation amongst lubricated equipment; and
• fireworks and pyrotechnics.
You should also consider the materials used to line walls and ceilings, e.g. polystyrene or carpet tiles, the fixtures and fittings, and brought-in materials, and how they might contribute to the spread of fire. Further information is available in Part 2, Section 1.
Identify sources of oxygen
The main source of oxygen for a fire is in the air around us. In an enclosed building this is provided by the ventilation system in use. This generally falls into one of two categories: natural airflow through doors, windows, and other openings; or mechanical air conditioning systems and air handling systems. In many buildings, there will be a combination of systems, which will be capable of introducing/extracting air to and from the building.
Additional sources of oxygen can sometimes be found in materials used or stored at premises such as:
• some chemicals (oxidizing materials), which can provide a fire with additional
oxygen and so help it burn. These chemicals should be identified on their container (and Control of Substances
Hazardous to Health data sheet, by the manufacturer or supplier who can advise as to their safe use and storage;
• oxygen supplies from cylinder storage and piped systems, e.g. oxygen used in welding processes; and
• pyrotechnics (fireworks), which contain oxidizing materials and need to be treated with great care.
IDENTIFY PEOPLE AT RISK
As part of your fire risk assessment, you need to identify those at risk if there is a fire.
To do this you need to identify where you have people working, either at permanent locations (such as workstations) or at occasional locations around the premises, and to consider who else may be at risk, such as spectators, worshippers, customers, other users of the facilities, including visiting performance companies, visiting contractors, etc., and where these people are likely to be found.
You must consider all the people who use the premises, but you should pay particular attention to people who may be especially at risk such as:
• employees who work alone and/or in isolated areas, e.g. cleaners and security staff;
• people who are unfamiliar with the premises, e.g. visitors and members of the public;
• unaccompanied children;
• people with disabilities* (including mobility impairment, or hearing or vision
impairment, etc.);
• people who may have some other reason for not being able to leave the premises quickly, e.g. people in a state of undress (e.g. swimmers or performers), the elderly, pregnant women or parents with children; large crowds, especially of young people, where behavior (and responses to
an emergency) might be abnormal;
• sensory impaired due to alcohol, drugs or medication; and
• other people in the immediate vicinity of the premises.
In evaluating the risk to people with disabilities you may need to discuss their individual needs with them. In complex buildings used extensively by the public, you may need to seek professional advice.
EVALUATE, REMOVE, REDUCE AND PROTECT FROM RISK
The management of the premises and the way people use it will have an effect on your evaluation of risk. Management may be your responsibility alone or there may be others, such as the building owners or managing agents, who also have responsibilities. In multi-occupied buildings, all those with some control must co-operate and you need to consider the risk generated by others in the building.
Evaluate the risk of a fire occurring
The chances of a fire starting will be low if your premises has few ignition sources and combustible materials are kept away from them.
In general, fires start in one of three ways:
• accidentally, such as when smoking materials are not properly extinguished or when lighting displays are knocked over;
• by act or omission, such as when electrical equipment is not properly maintained, or when waste is allowed to accumulate near to a heat source; and
• deliberately, such as an arson attack involving setting fire to external rubbish bins placed too close to the building.
Look critically at your premises and try to identify any accidents waiting to happen and any acts or omissions which might allow a fire to start. You should also look for any situation that may present an opportunity for an arsonist.
Evaluate the risk to people
In Step 2 you identified the people likely to be at risk should a fire start anywhere on the premises and earlier in Step 3 you identified the chances of a fire occurring. It is unlikely that you will have concluded that there is no chance of a fire starting anywhere in your premises so you now need to evaluate the actual risk to those people should a fire start and spread from the various locations that you have identified.
While determining the possible incidents, you should also consider the likelihood of any particular incident; but be aware that some very unlikely incidents can put many people at risk.
To evaluate the risk to people in your premises, you will need to understand the way fire can spread. Fire is spread by three methods:
• convection
• conduction
• radiation.
Convection
Fire spread by convection is the most dangerous and causes the largest number of injuries and deaths. When fires start in enclosed spaces such as buildings, the smoke rising from the fire gets trapped by the ceiling and then spreads in all directions to form an ever-deepening layer over the entire room space. The smoke will pass through any holes or gaps in the walls, ceiling, and floor into other parts of the building. The heat from the fire gets trapped in the building and the temperature rises.
Conduction
Some materials, such as metal shutters and ducting, can absorb heat and transmit it to the next room, where it can set fire to combustible items that are in contact with the heated material.
Radiation
Radiation heats the air in the same way as an electric bar heater heats a room. Any material close to a fire will absorb the heat until the item starts to smolder and then burn. Smoke produced by a fire also contains toxic gases which are harmful to people. A fire in a building with modern fittings and materials generates smoke that is thick and black, obscures vision, causes great difficulty in breathing and can block the escape routes.
Part 1 • Fire risk assessment
It is essential that the means of escape and other fire precautions are adequate to ensure that everyone can make their escape to a place of total safety before the fire and its effects can trap them in the building.
In evaluating this risk to people you will need to consider situations such as:
• fire starting within a large assembly space where very many people could be affected;
• fire starting on a lower floor affecting the only escape route for people on upper floors or the only escape route for people with disabilities;
• fire developing in an unoccupied space that people have to pass by to escape from the building;
• fire spreading rapidly through the building because of combustible structural elements and/or large quantities of combustible goods;
• fire or smoke spreading through a building via routes such as vertical shafts, service ducts, ventilation systems, poorly installed, poorly maintained or damaged, walls, partitions, and ceilings affecting people in remote areas;
• fire and smoke spreading through a building due to poor installation of fire precautions, e.g. incorrectly installed fire doors or incorrectly installed services penetrating firewalls;
• fire and smoke spreading through the building due to poorly maintained and damaged fire doors or fire doors being wedged open; and
• fire starting in a service room and affecting hazardous materials (such as pyrotechnics or swimming pool chemicals).
Remove or reduce the hazards
Having identified the fire hazards in Step 1, you now need to remove those hazards if reasonably practicable to do so. If you cannot remove the hazards, you need to take reasonable steps to reduce them if you can.
This is an essential part of fire risk assessment and as a priority, this must take place before any other actions. Ensure that any actions you take to remove or reduce fire hazards or risk are not substituted by other hazards or risks.
For example, if you replace a flammable substance with a toxic or corrosive one, you must consider whether this might cause harm to people in other ways.
Remove or reduce sources of ignition
There are various ways that you can reduce the risk caused by potential sources of ignition, for example:
• Wherever possible replace a potential source by a safer alternative.
• Replace naked flame and radiant heaters with fixed convector heaters or a central heating system. Restrict the movement of and guard portable heating appliances.
• Restrict and control the use of naked flames, e.g. candles.
• Operate a safe smoking policy in designated smoking areas, ensuring sufficient ashtrays are provided and cleaned appropriately and prohibit smoking elsewhere.
• Ensure that sources of heat are kept away from flammable materials such as curtains, scenery, and displays.
• Ensure electrical, mechanical and gas equipment is installed, used, maintained and protected in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Ensure cooking and catering equipment is installed, used, maintained and protected in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Strictly control hot processes/hot work by operating permit to work schemes
• Check all areas where hot work (e.g. welding) has been carried out to ensure that no ignition has taken place or any smoldering materials remain that may cause a fire.
• Control or prevent the introduction of portable electrical or gas heating and/or cooking equipment by employees, service or repair engineers, hot food vendors, or show organizers and promoters.
• Ensure that flares and fireworks are not brought into the premises by members of the public.
• Ensure that no one carrying out work on gas fittings which involves exposing pipes that contain or have contained flammable gas uses any source of ignition such as blow-lamps or hot-air guns.
• Ensure that no one uses any source of ignition while searching for an escape of gas.
• Ensure that all pyrotechnics, fireworks, flares and other hazardous equipment are installed, used, maintained, protected and stored in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Take precautions to avoid arson.
Remove or reduce sources of fuel
There are various ways that you can reduce the risks caused by materials and substances which burn, for example:
• Ensure that all upholstered furniture, curtains, drapes and other soft furnishings, are fire-retardant, or have been treated with a proprietary fire-retardant treatment designed to enhance their fire performance.
• Ensure that display materials (including artificial and dried foliage), scenery and stands, are fire-retardant, or have been treated with a proprietary fire-retardant treatment designed to enhance their fire performance.
• Reduce stocks of flammable materials, liquids, and gases (including foodstuffs) on display in public areas to a minimum. Keep remaining stock in dedicated storerooms or storage areas, preferably outside, where the public is not allowed to go, and keep the minimum required for the operation of the business.
• Ensure flammable materials, liquids and gases, are kept to a minimum, and are stored properly with adequate separation distances between them.
Part 1 • Fire risk assessment
• Do not keep flammable solids, liquids, and gases together.
• Remove, cover or treat large areas of highly combustible wall and ceiling linings, e.g. polystyrene or carpet tiles, to reduce the rate of flame spread across the surface.
• Develop a formal system for the control of combustible waste by ensuring that waste materials and rubbish are not allowed to build up and are carefully stored until properly disposed of, particularly at the end of the day.
• Ensure that foam mats (e.g. gymnasium mats), contents of foam pits and similar equipment are of combustion modified foam. Cover pits when not in use.
• Do not keep scenery or properties which are not in current use on an open stage other than in an approved scenery store or property store.
• Ensure that quantity of all pyrotechnics, fireworks and other hazardous material are kept to a minimum.
• Take action to avoid any parts of the premises, and in particular storage areas and ground staff equipment, being vulnerable to arson or vandalism.
• Check all areas where hot work (e.g. welding) has been carried out to ensure that no ignition has taken place and no smoldering or hot materials remain that may cause a fire later.
Remove or reduce sources of oxygen
You can reduce the potential source of oxygen supplied to a fire by:.
• closing all doors, windows and other openings not required for ventilation, particularly out of working hours;
• shutting down ventilation systems which are not essential to the function of the premises;
• not storing oxidizing materials (including pyrotechnics and fireworks) near or within any heat source or flammable materials;
• controlling the use and storage of oxygen cylinders, ensuring that they are not leaking and that where they are stored is adequately ventilated; and
• controlling the use and storage of pyrotechnics and fireworks.
Remove or reduce the risks to people
Having evaluated and addressed the risk of fire occurring and the risk to people (preventative measures) it is unlikely that you will be able to conclude that no risk remains of fire starting and presenting a risk to people in your premises.
You now need to reduce any remaining fire risk to people too as low as reasonably practicable by ensuring that adequate fire precautions are in place to warn people in the event of a fire and allow them to escape safely.
The rest of this step describes the fire protection measures you may wish to adapt to reduce the remaining fire risk to people.
The level of fire protection you need to provide will depend on the level of risk that remains in the premises after you have removed or reduced the hazards and risks.
Flexibility of fire protection measures
Flexibility will be required when applying this guidance; the level of fire protection should be proportional to the risk posed to the safety of the people in the premises.
Therefore, the objective should be to reduce the remaining risk to a level as low as reasonably practicable. The higher the risk of fire and risk to life, the higher the standards of fire protection will need to be.
Your premises may not exactly fit the solutions suggested in this guide and they may need to be applied in a flexible manner without compromising the safety of the occupants.
For example, if the travel distance is in excess of the norm for the level of risk you have determined, it may be necessary to do any one or a combination of the following to compensate:
• Provide earlier warning of fire using automatic fire detection.
• Revise the layout to reduce travel distances.
• Reduce the fire risk by removing or reducing combustible materials and/or ignition sources.
• Control the number of people in the premises.
• Limit the area to trained staff only (no public).
• Increase staff training and awareness.
Note: The above list is not exhaustive and is only used to illustrate some examples of trade-offs to provide safe premises.
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