Bob Williams relates some inadequate fire risk assessments and calls for a national register to drive out the 'cowboys'.

I’m a retired fire safety officer from a local authority brigade and have been practicing as a fire safety consultant for well over six years. I still haven’t sought accreditation mainly because I haven’t got around to it yet and I think I’ve only ever been asked once in six years if I’m competent to undertake this type of work. However I wouldn’t object at all to a national register of fire risk assessors as I consider myself reasonably competent having carried out nearly 600 risk assessments, reviews and audits. These included some quite large hotel and apartment buildings throughout Europe a few years ago on behalf of the major tour operators.

What really annoys me is when I see companies on the internet advertising a two day risk assessment course for persons who have little or no experience in fire risk assessment for £899 + VAT. They then tell them that, when qualified, they are competent to carry out assessments on cinemas, theatres, large and medium places of assembly and residential care premises, which is clearly not true.

Two-day 'qualifications'
There is no way anyone could be deemed competent after a two day course to carry out risk assessments on anything other than the smallest of office, shop or industrial premises. Certainly not on large buildings to which the general public have access, as there could be disastrous consequences. I completed the 12-week Specialist Fire Safety Course (as it was known before it was split into modules) at the Fire Service College but still consider myself to be learning all the time. Even experienced assessors and consultants can sometimes get it wrong. I have been pulled up only once, thank goodness, when an assessment I carried out was not suitable and sufficient with good grounds, and the situation was duly rectified.

I just wish someone in government could see the seriousness of this situation as responsible persons might think they have engaged the services of a competent assessor to assist them in discharging their duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, only to find later that a number of important issues had been completely overlooked.

It has been widely reported that there are too many cowboys professing to be competent fire risk assessors. I know this to be true, as I’ve followed a few and had to put things right a year or so later. A typical example of this was a residential care home where there was an inadequate provision of automatic fire detection on the first floor. I considered it serious enough to inform the Fire Authority as a small number of residents had been placed at significant risk. Immediate control measures were put into place to reduce the risk to a more tolerable level before the situation was rectified a few days later.

Out of their depth?
Responsible persons can also become well out of their depth without realising it. An example I have recently come across was where staff had been appointed to carry out a fire risk assessment, again in the care sector. This 70 bedroom residential home was extremely large, spread over four floors with basements and occupied three interconnected properties dating back many years to the Regency period. The risk assessment sheets were generic resulting in one sheet covering all 70 residents’ bedrooms, but virtually nothing on the escape routes and lack of adequate protection. I was informed that the Fire Authority were quite happy with the fire risk assessment, which is something I found hard to believe.

As a result my report ran to some 17 pages and will be costing the company many thousands of pounds to rectify shortfalls which the Fire Authority could have easily identified without too much searching. There is no way in which this risk assessment could have been suitable and sufficient as it was undertaken by people who did not have the relevant training, experience, knowledge or other qualities.

I could give other similar examples I have come across in the past couple of years, such as the boarding school with no smoke detection in classrooms with quite a high fire loading directly beneath sleeping accommodation used by both children and staff, together with inadequate protection of escape routes.

In my opinion there should be a national register of competent fire risk assessors which would stop the cowboys in their tracks. At least this would be a start. I for one would have to put myself forward for accreditation but hopefully with my experience, I would meet the definition for competency as laid down in the Order.

Bob Williams is a fire safety consultant