Blog Posts

In a recent blog of ours, we spoke about how often fire extinguishers need to be serviced. It can be surprising just how regularly they need to be checked and serviced. However, they’re a vital piece of equipment in the protection of people and businesses, so neglecting a fire extinguisher’s maintenance could result in a disaster.

Ensuring your business premises are compliant with Fire Safety legislation is essential.

Under past legislation, the Fire Authority would issue a Fire Safety Certificate to demonstrate that the workplace met the required standards of fire safety. 

Your workplace should be a safe environment for everyone: yourself, your employees, your colleagues and any customers you have entering the premises. If you are the business owner or employer you will find that responsibility for fire safety in the workplace, by default, falls on your shoulders.

In order for your business to be compliant with British Standard (BS) 5306:3 2009, the fire extinguishers within your business need to be serviced every 12 months. This is because fire extinguishers are a pressurised container and we rely on that pressure to put out fires. Since pressurised things have a tendency to leak, it’s essential that they are maintained regularly so that they function when required.

As an employer you have a seemingly endless list of responsibilities. None of these responsibilities are more important or have more costly ramifications than the safety of your employees. Your responsibilities therefore branch into training employees in the use of equipment, including fire extinguishers

You have to routinely inspect and maintain the equipment to ensure that it will function correctly in an emergency. These requirements are set out in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The hard truth is that most fire alarm and detection systems do not actually cause the false alarms – it is much more likely that it is due to mismanagement, lack of training and an absence of responsibility and procedures.

So, what do you need to know and consider in relation to false fire alarms?

Fire risk assessments and awareness training are an important part of any business. They ensure that employees are educated as to the hazards and fire risks within a workplace. They educate staff in ways to reduce these risks, how to act in the event of a fire, and how to identify people that are most at risk in a fire situation.

Throughout your everyday life, you will walk through a number of fire doors - at work, in public buildings, shops etc. If you look closely, you’ll notice that a vast majority of these doors are labelled ‘Keep shut”.

But why are fire doors meant to be kept closed? It might make sense to assume that in the event of a fire, having doors open allows a more effective evacuation route for people inside the building.

Whilst checks and visual inspections can be easily carried out by the responsible person when trained and familiar with how to do it, annual services require more in-depth knowledge and expertise in order to do so safely and correctly.

Because of this, most businesses will rely on an external service provider to maintain their fire extinguishers. However, with the relatively loose definition of the term ‘competent person’ in the eyes of the law, theoretically anyone with a small amount of knowledge can legally call themselves a ‘fire extinguisher technician’.