Our Fire Safety specialists are able to carry out Audits and pre-inspections to offer advice to persons responsible for premises which fall under the Fire Safety Order.
This may be required to satisfy a business need, an internal audit, an insurance requirement or a legislative need (typically prior to a Fire Authority inspection)
A fire safety audit is an examination of the premises and relevant documents to ascertain how the premises are being managed with regards to fire safety. You may also need to demonstrate that you have met the duties required by the Fire Safety Order.
When trying to establish whether the legislative requirements are being complied with, we will use the NFCC FSA Audit process to record findings. The audit form references the different articles of the Fire Safety Order and you will be expected to show that you have taken into account and required improvements (Areas of Consideration) noted within the form.
It is always good practice to document your fire safety measures and during the audit we may request to see the following:
- Fire Risk Assessment
- Fire Management Plan/ Fire Strategy
- Action plans related to any significant findings of the fire risk assessment
- Emergency plans for the premises (what to do in the event of a fire)
- Records of staff training and fire drills
- Records of testing and maintenance for the fire alarm system
- Records of testing and maintenance for the emergency lighting
- Records of testing and maintenance of firefighting equipment (e.g. extinguishers)
- Records of testing and Inspection of Fire Doors
In addition we may also wish to talk to members of staff to confirm their level of fire safety awareness.
The audit will typically conclude with a walk around your premises. The purpose of this is to confirm the validity of everything discussed previously.