Commercial fire doors – risks and hazards … and fines!
In this article we’re continuing to look at commercial fire doors; this time we’ll be taking a look at the risks and hazards associated with fires, and in particular the necessity to carry out a proper risk assessment. Before we come onto that, let’s just clear up exactly what we mean by a “risk” and also a “hazard”, as they are different, and it’s very important to put them into context.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has the following definitions:
A hazard is a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons
A risk is the likelihood that a person may be harmed or suffer adverse health effects if exposed to a hazard
They use a simple example to illustrate the difference: if there was a spill of water in a room, then that water would present a slipping hazard to persons passing through it. If access to that area was prevented by a physical barrier then the hazard would remain though the risk would be minimised.
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So far so good. So how can we be objective about judging the level of risk? By carrying out what is called a risk assessment. Again, from the HSA:
Risk Assessment is where the severity of the hazard and its potential outcomes are considered in conjunction with other factors including the level of exposure and the numbers of persons exposed and the risk of that hazard being realised. There are a number of different formulae used to calculate the overall risk from basic calculations using high, medium and low categories to complicated algorithms to calculate risks at nuclear power stations and other high risk work locations.
It is important to ensure that the residual risk following implementation of control measures is ‘as low as is reasonably possible’ (ALARP). For a risk to be ALARP it must be possible to demonstrate that the cost involved in reducing the risk further would be grossly disproportionate to the benefit gained.
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Let’s now take a look at the broad structure of a risk assessment:
- Preface
- Executive Summary
- Building Overview
- Fire Protection
- Fire Hazards
- People at Risk
- Building Occupancy
- Means of Escape
- Overall Risk Summary
- Fire Risk Assessment, Significant Findings
- Fire Risk Assessment, Non-Compliant Findings
- Fire Risk Assessment, Compliant Findings
- Fire Risk Assessment, Questions Not Reviewed
- Appendix 1 – Methodology
- Appendix 2 – How Risk is Calculated
- Photo Addendum
- Supporting Documents
and if we look at the ‘Means of Escape’ section, it might be in the following format:
- Summary assessment of overall risk (High, Medium, Low)
- Travel Distances
- Any other information about the means of escape which is relevant to the fire risk assessment
Quite apart from the obvious necessity to look after people, there are huge fines possible if organisations are non-compliant. For example, Shell have been fined £300,000 for:
- Blocked escape routes
- Blocked fire exits
- Defective fire doors
- Excessive fire loading
You can see from these lists how commercial fire doors will play an important part in a number of these categories (e.g. building overview, fire protection, people at risk, means of escape, and so on). Note the mention of defective fire doors in the large fine handed out to Shell – so clearly you need to pay very special attention …
How to get expert advice
It’s important that you talk to experts who specialise in the manufacture and installation of commercial fire doors – and who can give you excellent advice and guidance based on years of successful installations and a large and satisfied customer base.
If you would like further information on our company please visit our home page or go directly to our contact page when we will respond as quickly as possible.
As always we’ll be delighted to help and advise you.
