Ever the consummate fire safety professional, Graham Ellicott gets invited to a party where even the provision of some sublime live music did not prevent his thoughts from turning to the problems of fire safety legislation.
Over the christmas period i had the good fortune to be invited to party, where it was rumoured that there would be live music. Much to my delight, after consuming my first drink, a Fender Stratocaster and an Ibanez bass took to the stage, plus their players, to join a Premier drum kit operated with aplomb by a dapper wristy stickster.
Another drink slipped down and a riff familiar to all middle aged men (is there one that can't play Smoke on the Water on air guitar, I ask?) began to emanate from this trio and the dancers began to sway rhythmically on the dance floor. After another drink a Gibson SG played by a young Clapton lookalike, replaced the Strat and its owner and the trio started to play a familiar Clapton song. A further drink, and the music began to blur and I slipped back in time to those days of yore, when power trios such as Cream and Taste started with a tight riff and then the guitar player wandered off metaphorically for ten minutes on a solo. Soon, of course, to be followed by the drummer for 15 minutes pounding out a solo that was a mixture of a machine gun and a voodoo chant. Hell, the drummer of the band on stage now started to look and sound like the great Ginger Baker! And then I came back to the present as the Ibanez cut in and reined it all back, and made the riff sound like it had always been there.
On receipt of a further drink, I got to thinking that the band on stage was a metaphor for the Fire Safety Order and the stakeholders within its sphere of operation. That is, in the eyes of the property owners or managers (the responsible person in the ‘jargon' of the legislation) the Fire Safety Order and its operation must look like the power trio, with incomprehensible solos being played by each person who provides advice, only to be brought back into line by yet another party. The real confusion, of course, is that the roles swap around depending on where you are in the country and/or who you consult. For example, the ‘guitarist' may be an enthusiastic fire risk assessor, while the ‘drummer' may be an equally enthusiastic enforcer and the ‘bass' may be a supplier of fire protection systems; equally the latter could be the Jimi Hendrix of his profession!
Harmony
Now I'm on a roll here and with the harmonies of Jimi Hendrix's Fire (especially the Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell and Jimi singing Let me stand next to your fire) running through what brain I have left, I got to thinking about the need for more harmony in the fire world. This could be evidenced metaphorically as a tighter riff from all of us that are involved.
So what do we need to do to get everybody playing the same riff in a tight manner? Well, a good start would be consistency in all things to do with the Order. In the past I have commented upon the care homes sector and the problems that it faces. In recent months, the Bed and Breakfast ‘industry' has also enjoyed a high profile and has publicised the problems that, in its opinion, inconsistent enforcement can bring.
But it's not just enforcement – there needs to be a consistency in approach from the fire risk assessment organisations, and from those in the fire industry in their roles as ‘competent persons'. For them, trade associations and professional bodies can play a significant role, and that is now beginning to proceed at a pace. Registers of fire risk assessors exist, as does a Fire Risk Assessment Council within the Fire Industry Association. This body has set its sights on bringing a level playing field to the fire risk assessment process, and to build constructive liaisons with other stakeholders.
The other riff that's out there that we're all waiting to hear is, of course, the results of the CLG review into the Fire Safety Order. It's been a long time now since the consultants did their rounds of the interested parties and solicited their opinions, so surely the results must be due soon? If they're not issued in the near future then their impact will be lost and, worse still, there are likely to be accusations that the review was ordered just to show that something was being done!
But of course it becomes more difficult to deliver a tight riff as the number of the players increases, as is the case currently in the fire world as more and more organisations spring up and dust down their Strats to unleash a crescendo of hammer ons and bent notes for all to hear! One has to ask wouldn't it be easier for all concerned if there were less organisations to deal with? That, I guess, is a Viewpoint for another day, probably phrased around Buddy Holly's 2min 16 second classic That'll be the day!
But as my penultimate drink arrived, the band launched into a version of Fire as originally recorded by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and at this stage of the evening, the aforementioned dapper wristy stickster treated us to a selection of double-stroke rolls, linear grooves, fills, and solos. He then topped off the performance by the throwing of his sticks into the audience with a shout of "I am the God of Hell Fire" before exiting stage left, which I guess just goes to show that all drummers are larger than life with the big egos that are necessary to sustain the voodoo rhythms of their trade!
Having drunk the same brand of mineral water all evening, I saw no need to change now and downed the last with speed before racing to grab one of the drumsticks as a souvenir of a fine evening of music and metaphor. I only hope that the Fire Safety Order remains in my mind as long as the music of the power trios of the 60s and 70s. If it does not, it will not have been the success that was hoped for by its drafters.
