Fire hazards can pose a significant threat to businesses. Every year people die and many more are injured by fires occurring in the workplace. The financial costs of a fire can be equally devastating. Annually, the cost to businesses through fire runs into millions of pounds, and companies are all-too-often unable to recover from its catastrophic effects.
While the inclusion of fire protection may appear to be a simple and logical adjunct to a security manager's job description, without proper support and training the task of looking after a company's fire safety can prove a legislative maze – and a logistical headache – to say the very least. In the worse case scenario, any mistakes or oversights in the fire safety arena can literally prove fatal.
So what does a security manager need to consider when faced with the task of looking after the organisation's fire safety, and how might they best ensure that their company is operating in a safe, secure and legal manner?
Forthcoming changes to fire safety regulations ('Fire alarms: working to the BSI Code', SMT, December 2003, p57) mean that current legislation will be tightened, requiring organisations to review their existing fire safety practises and put in place adequate controls designed to meet the new guidelines.
Currently, there are a number of key legal duties that businesses are obliged to undertake. These include carrying out a full fire risk assessment, maintaining adequate fire precautions to safeguard those in the workplace, providing the necessary fire safety training for employees and drawing up an emergency plan. In addition, employers are bound by further legal duties relating to the dissemination of information and the involvement of all parties in fire safety precautions. It's worth noting here that businesses meeting specific additional criteria are also obliged to have a fire certificate.
Changes to fire safety law are expected to come into force in the Spring of 2005. The new legislation will seek to provide a risk-based approach to fire safety, allowing for more active enforcement by the fire service. It's expected that the scope of the current requirements will be widened, with the onus on the person responsible for the premises/workplace to safeguard all occupants in the building and the immediate area (not just employees).
Within certain limitations, the fire service will be responsible for policing the fire safety arrangements made by businesses, and it's likely that the new regulations will be strictly enforced. Finally, the issuing of fire certificates will cease, freeing up the fire service to focus on ensuring legislative compliance by all parties.
Fire risk assessments
Fire risk assessments should be regularly carried out and reviewed to remain both legal and effective. Security managers need to arrange for a fire risk assessment to be completed by a qualified individual with experience and knowledge in relation to fire. That person could well be the security manager, who will analyse where the risks within premises lie and then provide salient advice to key employees on issues that will eventually be included in a detailed report.
Thereafter, it's the manager's responsibility to ensure that all personnel update the risk assessment and have it validated at least once every year by the qualified individual. That's the only way to show that your company is operating in compliance with the fire regulations (as outlined above).
Security and fire risks must be considered jointly, as one doesn't necessarily always complement the other. While a building needs to be secure to prevent intruders from breaking and entering, it's essential that anyone inside the building is able to escape quickly in the event of a fire. An imbalance in those needs proved fatal back in the 1970s with the infamous Woolworth's fire at its warehousing and computer complex in Castleton, illustrated in the national media by pictures of people pressed against barred windows after being unable to escape or be rescued.
Risk assessments must therefore take into consideration all aspects of security and fire safety. Ensuring that, on the one hand, would-be trespassers are prevented from accessing the building(s) while concurrently enabling fast and safe evacuation where necessary.
Options for fire management
There are many different ways in which the practising security manager might cope with the risk assessment process such that effective protection is provided from both of these perspectives. Examples would include the fitting of:
This list is by no means exhaustive. However, during occupation of any building doors should only be secured by a simple, single operation device that can be used without the need for a key (including combination locks and keys in a break glass box). At all other times the doors may be fully secured by way of locks, chains and shutters.
Any door that (by necessity) needs to be locked closed must then be discounted as an escape route and an alternative path to safety provided for those inside the building. Any route or routes chosen must be tested – preferably on a monthly basis – to ensure that if a fire does occur in any particular area of the building these doors will operate efficiently.
Risk assessments also need to consider differing flow patterns of people to accommodate various scenarios. Security levels will vary according to the time of day, the day of the week and whether or not there are people inside the building. If there's no-one inside, then security will normally need to be higher than when there are people present.
Reducing risks from hazards
It remains hugely important to reduce the risk from hazards that may be present in and around the building. Arson is an increasing problem for businesses, and items like unsecured bins and large quantities of combustible rubbish allow arsonists to carry out an attack with the greatest of ease (particularly in poorly lit, unmonitored areas).
The law states that every employee must be trained in aspects of fire safety. That training can take place in-house and, increasingly, may be offered online. It should include instruction on what to do in the event of a fire, where fire escapes and exit routes are positioned and the correct exit procedures to follow according to what part of the building you may be in or near to. How should employees operate fire extinguishers? All new employees must be trained prior to commencing employment.
Fire wardens or marshals should be allocated for each area within the workplace, and be available at all times of the working day. Thus it's normally an essential to appoint deputies who are able to cover lunch breaks, sickness and holidays, etc. In the event of a fire, the wardens or marshals will ensure that everyone leaves the building quickly and safely, and report any missing people to the fire brigade upon their arrival.
Finally, fire drills must be carried out every six months as a bare minimum requirement. Don't forget that, as the person who's ultimately responsible for the company's fire safety, the security professional must effectively manage this whole process while ensuring that each employee is adequately trained for every possible eventuality.
Health and Safety checks
Managers must also put in place regular basic Health and Safety checks to ensure that everything's in order between inspections.
These checks should include the inspection of all fire extinguishers, the testing of fire alarms, checking external fire exit doors and making sure that safety signs are in position (and visible from all necessary angles). Such processes ought to be written-in to the organisation's Health and Safety Manual, with clear details provided for the individuals who have the responsibility for ensuring compliance with the fire safety regulations.
The aforementioned procedures can easily take up a huge proportion of a security manager's time if they're not implemented and subsequently policed in an effective and efficient manner. While risk assessments, training programmes and safety checks might all be managed through manual processes, in a workplace that's increasingly being driven by technology an automated approach could well be more suitable.
Automated systems enable companies to design, implement and monitor their fire safety legislation processes and procedures, guaranteeing that everything's in place and that the organisation remains within the law every step of the way. A major advantage of using such a solution is that it will automatically check the relevant processes have been carried out at any given time (and will also flag up any oversights if they haven't).
Not only that, when the law changes and fire officers take on a stronger policing role, automated systems will allow companies to afford the fire brigade access – should they so wish – to remotely check that those companies have complied with the regulations. The fire service will then be able to concentrate their efforts on those who have very obviously not complied with the law, or those for whom the information isn't available. An automated system might therefore reduce the number of time-consuming visits from the fire brigade that a security manager has to accommodate.
Support for what you do
With careful planning, rigorous management and assistance from the experts in fire safety, security managers should be able to provide their place of work with a comprehensive fire safety regime while not compromising the central security function in any way.
That said, practising security professionals must be given the required amount of time, training, support and tools by their own immediate management such that they might execute their duties in a competent and legally-binding manner.
Source
SMT
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