Fire Risk Assessments in Blocks of Flats - Pt 2 - Scope and relevance

Common areas

It is the case that only the common areas of a block of flats are subject to the requirement for a fire risk assessment. This means that while the owner or responsible person must undertake appropriate fire risk assessments, this should only relate to the common areas - corridors, stairways and any rooms accessible by all residents - in addition to any rooms used by staff members, such as maintenance, office or plant rooms.
It is also correct that the FRA does not cover the fire safety or fire prevention within individual flats in the block. However, there is a responsibility to ensure that a sample amount of flats within the block are gained access to and considered. The reason for this is to ensure that the danger of fire spread between the flats, or between the flats and common areas has been considered, should a fire start in one of the flats.
Articles 10-22 of the Fire Safety Order lay out the responsibilities of a Fire Risk Assessment which relate to blocks of flats and discuss the "general fire precautions" that should be undertaken to ensure fire safety.
In essence, they state that you should consider reduction of the risk and spread of fire, means of escape, the safety and viability of escape routes from the block, an emergency plan and mitigation of the effects of fire.

Fire alarm and prevention systems

While fire extinguishers and fire alarm systems are not usually installed in the common areas of blocks of flats, if they are already installed, their usage, maintenance and suitability must be considered. It may be that they are, in fact, found to be not helpful and liable to cause confusion or to negate an effective 'stay put' evacuation policy, whereby when a fire occurs within one flat, only the residents of that flat need to evacuate, as each flat has fire resistant compartmentation to prevent fire spread between flats and between flats and common areas. In this case, consideration should be given to the removal of the fire alarm system to avoid confusion.

Compartmentation

The Emergency Plan should be disseminated to all residents of the blocks of flats, and residents should be made aware of the potential dangers of any works they may have undertaken on their own flat which may compromise fire-resistant compartmentation, for instance. This can be a concern where residents may have had cable or satellite dishes installed, and when the contractor drills through a wall, unaware that it is an essential part of the building's fire resistance, this can compromise the safety of the block and cause fire spread. Residents should be encouraged to have their own fire alarms installed within the flat, for their own safety.

Next week's blog will look at the types of fire risk assessment. If you have any queries resulting from this blog or wish to know more about the Complete Fire Safety Management system of achieving fire safety and meeting all legislative requirements, please contact Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663.

The Complete Fire Safety Management Platform - Our aim, at CFSM, is to make the process of becoming fire-safe straight forward, and to use our expertise in fire risk assessment and fire safety management to guide you through each necessary step, resulting in your premises meeting all legal, insurance and ethical fire safety considerations. The Complete Fire Safety Management platform is part of Lawrence Webster Forrest Limited, one of the UK's longest established Fire Engineering and Fire Risk Management Consultancies.