Law on fire prevention and safety

Open letter from David Sugden, Chairman of the Passive Fire Protection Federation (PFPF), on the potential crisis looming with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety).

Open letter from David Sugden, Chairman of the Passive Fire Protection Federation (PFPF), on the potential crisis looming with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety).

The UK is sleep-walking into a potential crisis.

The law on fire prevention and safety is changing on October 1 - but many of those affected are unaware of the new order and its implications.

As of that date your building's Fire Certificate will be defunct.

With the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO) coming into force in less than a month, fire prevention and safety will become the responsibility of the owner or nominated person in commercial businesses, shops and enterprises.

The 'responsible person' has to assess and maintain a building's fire safety.

Contractors and subcontractors working on a building may also be responsible.

Get the required 'Fire Risk Assessment' wrong or ignore the requirement and lives are endangered, and businesses put at risk as insurance will be void.

Ultimately, those responsible are personally and criminally liable.

But people don't know what they're looking for, or how to look for it! Most fire protection measures should be built into the fabric of a building - but how many will check beyond sprinklers and alarms?.

These 'active' measures are important but it is the structural or 'passive' fire protection measures that keep a building standing during fire, allowing people to escape and fire fighters to get in.

Structural steelwork protection; fire-resistant paints; glazing; fire doors; ducts and dampers; fire stopping - how many businesses know what to check, let alone how? The Passive Fire Protection Federation (PFPF) is dedicated to growing awareness and giving advice on fire protection, and the RRO.

Our members include the Chief Fire Officers Association, the Department of Communities and Local Government (previously the ODPM), the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Building Research Establishment.

We are trying to get the message out before it is too late.

Our website carries advice on what to check and best practice in all passive fire protection measures.

There has been so little coverage of such a major event that everyone needs alerting.

The Government's efforts have been late, low key and woefully inadequate.

With a 'junk mail' style flyer and a 140 page document to download (but who knows this is available?), it has 'done its bit' as the budget would allow.

The media is now the only hope - but coverage so far has been limited to the odd column in the back pages.

Big businesses, with in-house fire prevention officers and lawyers, will probably be fine.

But how many small to medium enterprises (which make up most of Britain's businesses) have heard of the RRO, or have the resources to comply at short notice? When the licensing laws changed it was front page news for weeks.

Sadly it seems it may take a bad fire and several deaths before fire protection and precautions are taken seriously.

There will be loss of life and property because people don't know they are responsible - and don't know how to accept responsibility if they do.

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