Fire risk assessments for commercial premises

A fire risk assessment works through the building systematically rather than checking items off a generic list, because the hazards in a commercial kitchen have very little in common with the hazards in a warehouse full of racking. During a site visit, we cover:

• Fire hazards and ignition sources, such as electrical equipment, heating, cooking, smoking areas, flammable substances and how they are stored.
• People at risk, including staff, visitors, contractors and anyone who might need help to evacuate, such as people with mobility or sensory impairments.
• Existing fire precautions, and whether they match the risk: detection and alarm, emergency lighting, fire doors, extinguishers and signage.
• Means of escape, checking that escape routes are unobstructed, adequately signed and lead somewhere safe, and that final exits are usable when needed.
• Compartmentation, looking at whether fire doors, walls and any fire-stopping around service penetrations are doing the job they were designed for.
• Management arrangements, such as how fire drills are run, how staff are trained and how the premises are kept in a safe condition day to day.

Each of these connects to the others. A building with a good detection system but an obstructed fire exit is not a safe building, and an assessment has to look at the whole picture rather than certifying one system in isolation.

We follow the recognised structure for a fire risk assessment: identify the hazards, identify who is at risk, evaluate and reduce the risk, record the findings, and set a date to review them. In practice that means:

1. A site survey. We walk the building with you or your representative, looking at how it is actually used rather than how it appears on the drawings, because that is usually where the gaps show up. 2. Evaluation of the risk. We weigh up the likelihood of a fire starting against the consequences for the people in the building, and compare that against the precautions already in place. 3. A written report. You receive a record of the significant findings, photographs where they help explain an issue, and a prioritised action plan setting out what needs addressing, in what order.

We are straightforward in the report about what genuinely needs attention and what does not. A fire risk assessment that flags every minor observation as urgent is not useful to you, and neither is one that misses a real problem to keep the report short.

A fire risk assessment is not a one-off document. It needs reviewing regularly, and always after a significant change, such as a refurbishment, a change of use, an extension, a new process introduced on site, or a fire or near miss that suggests the existing precautions were not adequate. An assessment that was accurate five years ago may no longer reflect how the building is used today, and an out-of-date assessment is a common finding when an enforcing authority visits a premises after an incident.

If your existing assessment was carried out by someone else and you are not confident it still reflects the building, we can review it rather than starting from scratch, and tell you honestly whether it needs a full reassessment or a lighter update.

We carry out commercial fire risk assessments across Birmingham and Walsall, Worcester and Worcestershire, Gloucester, Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. See our full list of service locations for more detail on where we work.