If you've been asked for a fire risk assessment, it's reasonable to want to know what you're actually paying for. The short version: an assessor looks at how a fire could start in your building, who would be harmed if one did, and what's reasonably needed to prevent it or get everyone out safely. Everything else is detail.
It is not a test you pass or fail, and it isn't an excuse to recommend forty things. A good assessment is proportionate, matched to the real risk in your specific premises.
The five steps behind every assessment
Whatever the building, the method is the same. An assessor works through five steps:
- Identify the fire hazards. Sources of ignition, fuel and oxygen, the three things a fire needs.
- Identify the people at risk. Staff, visitors, contractors, and anyone more vulnerable in an evacuation.
- Evaluate, remove and reduce the risk. Decide what's already adequate, and what genuinely needs to change.
- Record the findings and plan. Write it down, set out the actions, and make sure people are informed and trained.
- Review. Keep it current, especially when the building, its use or its occupants change.
What we physically look at
On site, the assessment works through the things that decide whether people stay safe:
- Ignition and fuel. Electrics, heating, cooking, hot works, storage, waste, and how they're managed day to day.
- Means of escape. Routes, distances, exits, and whether they're usable and unobstructed in practice, not just on a plan.
- Detection and warning. Alarms and detection appropriate to the building, and whether they'd actually alert everyone in time.
- Emergency lighting and signage. So people can find their way out when the power's gone.
- Firefighting equipment. The right extinguishers, in the right places, maintained.
- Compartmentation and fire doors. The built-in features that hold a fire back and buy time to escape.
- Management and maintenance. Testing, records, training, and who's actually responsible for keeping it all working.
A thick report isn't a good report. The right report is the one that tells you what genuinely matters, and what doesn't.
What ends up in the report
You should come away with a written assessment that a busy owner can read in ten minutes: a photo of each significant finding, a plain-English explanation of what it means, and a prioritised action plan, what to do first, what can wait, and what needs nothing at all. It should be something you can hand straight to an insurer, a landlord or an enforcing authority and have it hold up.
Why "proportionate" is the whole point
A small, simple premises and a complex multi-let building don't need the same response, and pretending otherwise just costs you money. The skill in an assessment isn't spotting everything that could theoretically be improved; it's judging what's reasonable for your building and your risk — what the law calls "suitable and sufficient" — and saying so clearly. That's the difference between advice you can act on and a document that just covers someone's back.
Who's responsible for it?
In a commercial premises, the duty (set out in Article 9 of the Fire Safety Order) sits with the "responsible person" — usually the employer, owner or whoever has control of the premises. That's who needs the assessment, and who's responsible for acting on it. Our job is to give you the clear, competent assessment that lets you do that properly.
This is general information to help you understand the process, not advice for your specific premises. For that, you need an assessment of your actual building.