C O N T E X T 1 1 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 0 33 location of fire stations, number and type of fire engines, and crewing arrangements. National guidance to IRMPs is provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The guidance for heritage properties is summarised as: ‘Fire and rescue authorities are required to produce a local IRMP that sets out the authority’s strategy, in collaboration with other agencies, for reducing the commercial, economic and social impact of fires and other emergency incidents. Safeguarding the environment and heritage (both built and natural) is an essential component of this strategy. FRAs have a legal responsibility to ensure that effective arrangements are in place to deal with incidents that could adversely affect the rich heritage of our country, through both planning and response. But a moral responsibility also exists to ensure that the quality of life of the public is improved through sustainable development. The protection of built and natural heritage is seen as a core function in an integrated risk management plan designed to improve the safety of the community.’ Fire service response to automatic alarms The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) has published a model agreement for a new policy to reduce false fire alarms generated by remotely monitored fire alarm systems. In 2005, 50 per cent of the 867,000 calls to the fire service were false alarms. Sixty-five per cent of these were due to false activation of the equipment. The rate of general false alarms has fallen recently, but those due to false activations of the equipment have not been reduced significantly. Premises with poor performing systems will have the fire service response level to their premises reduced or even withdrawn. Remedial measures to reduce false activations will need to be taken to have their response restored.This policy has been adopted by all fire and rescue services. But the interpretation differs from one authority to another, the extreme position being no response to automatic alarms unless a 999 back-up call is received. This would require a key holder to be notified at the same time as the fire service, and for them to be able to confirm very quickly that there is a fire. As this is not always possible, the effectiveness of the fire detection system for property protection is in doubt.When upgrading, replacing, or specifying a new fire alarm and detection system, the degree of sensitivity of the detectors will need to be balanced against the probability of them being activated in non-fire conditions. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 came into effect in 2006. It repealed all previous firerelated legislation, particularly the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations. The reason for introducing the Fire Safety Order (FSO) was to simplify the regulations and their enforcement with a single risk-based piece of legislation. It removed references to fire in all other legislation, such as the Licensing Act, the Miscellaneous Provisions Act, the Children’s Act, and the Theatres Act. The other important change is that it applies to all premises except single-occupied dwellings. Previous legislation applied to designated uses of premises such as hotel, office, shop, factory and railway premises. Many properties not put to designated uses were exempt. The application to all premises was a requirement of European directives that were not satisfied by the scope of the Workplace Regulations, which only applied to places of work. Fire risk assessments Fire risk assessments are required for all premises falling within the scope of the FSO. They should be used to highlight any steps that are necessary to ensure the safety of relevant persons (employees, contractors, visitors and other occupants). As with other health and safety legislation, these risk assessments are required to be in writing only where there are more than five employees. However, it is difficult to imagine how a ‘responsible person’ can prove that a risk assessment has been undertaken if it is not in writing. Guidance A series of 12 guides is available from the Stationery Office or online at www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/. These have been written to help the responsible person to undertake their fire risk assessments in various uses of premises. The series covers many types of premises including offices and shops, places of assembly, factories and warehouses, and educational establishments. The guides are supposed to demonstrate one way of complying with the legislation. Unfortunately, some fire authorities use them prescriptively as minimum standards. All the guides contain an appendix referring to historic buildings. This was originally written as a series of sentences to be incorporated into the main text. Unfortunately, the guides were rushed through with minimum consultation as parliament would not pass the legislation until they were ready. As a result, the guidance for historic buildings is limited to one page in isolation. The FSO has been enacted to ensure the safety of people. It does not specifically encourage property protection, particularly the spread of fire from one building to the next. However, there are duties which will also help to protect the premises: ‘Duty to take general fire precautions: 8(1) The responsible person must (a) take such general fire precautions as will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of any of his employees; and (b) in relation to relevant persons who are not his employees, take such general fire precautions as may reasonably be
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