Working Together To Improve Construction Health & Safety
Working Together To Improve Construction Health & Safety
At Marpal, we are here to help you put in place suitable and sufficient Fire safety procedures that will protect your employees, occupants and business in the event of a fire.
The starting point for improved fire safety in your workplace is a Fire Risk Assessment.
Regardless of the level of risk, a Fire Risk Assessment forms a part of your legal health and safety obligations. In 2006, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order introduced a requirement for all non-domestic properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to conduct suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessments; The Fire (Scotland) Act introduced similar requirement for Scotland.
We work with companies of all sizes within most industry sectors to carry out detailed, quality Fire Risk Assessments. Our IFE Registered Fire Risk Assessors have accumulated many years of invaluable experience and also specialise in carrying out Fire Risk Assessments on care homes, flats, industrial buildings, manufacturing facilities, offices, laboratories, railway stations, retail units etc.
Your Fire Risk Assessment must be reviewed/updated at least annually or when there has been a significant change to your premises, such as a change in use, change in staffing levels or if you’ve had a fire incident.
We don’t have a one fits all Fire Risk Assessment template. Whatever the use of your premises, our specially developed templates ensure that all fire safety aspects are covered!
Buildings maybe subdivided into self-contained areas to prevent the spread of fire and smoke, and ensure that means of escape are available at all times; this is known as Fire Compartmentation. Depending on the use of a building and the nature of the occupants, ensuring that there are no breaches of compartmentation is critical; particularly in a fire situation.
Our experienced Surveyors will undertake Fire Compartmentation Survey at your premises to assess whether the existing fire compartment walls (including doors therein), floors, ceilings etc. within the property are likely to restrict the potential spread of fire and smoke for the required period of time.
Unfortunately, breaches of compartmentation are far too common, this can be down to bad design or the result of poor workmanship!
The Fire Evacuation Plan should consider all aspects associated with the emergency evacuation of the building should a fire occur. In certain types of buildings, an evacuation may not be straightforward and may involve procedures that staff are unfamiliar with and are contrary to the approach for most building types.
Whatever the building type, Marpal can help to develop building specific Fire Evacuation Strategies based on the evacuation needs and number of occupants, whilst recognising any shortcomings the building may have.
A well developed and rehearsed Fire Evacuation Strategy is absolutely essential and can be the difference between having multiple or no casualties in a fire situation!
If you are planning to construct your new premises, alter or extend, the fire safety risks can be significantly reduced by reviewing the Fire Safety Strategy during the design development stage.
Utilising our experienced staff, Marpal can advise architects, designers and clients on their fire strategies, helping to achieve Building Regulation approval. We can also provide “value engineering” solutions by advising how fire safety objectives can be achieved in the most cost effective and space efficient way.
The key to the successful management of fire safety is to ensure that suitable fire safety training is provided to your employees, so that they know what to do in the event of a fire. Our half day Fire Warden training is designed specifically with your building type and occupancy in mind.
In addition to having a Fire Risk Assessment and an Evacuation Strategy in place, non-domestic premises should also have suitable fire safety policies and procedures, commensurate with the size and type of premises. Marpal can help in the preparation or review of such fire safety policies and procedures.
