South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue will be offering small and medium-sized businesses a range of advice during the National Fire Chiefs Council’s (NFCC’s) Business Safety Week, which runs from 11th – 17th September.
The week aims to help businesses understand their fire safety responsibilities so they remain safe, legal, and compliant. Many fires in the workplace are preventable and some businesses never recover after a fire. Helping businesses to manage their fire risks and hazards, and potentially to save lives and safeguard their businesses against financial and commercial loss is of key importance.
Fire safety legislation
Simple measures to reduce risks of a fire starting and ensuring staff know how to respond in the right way can help to keep people safe and makes business sense. At this time of year many businesses will be preparing for the Christmas period and may also be impacted by the cost of living crisis.
Simple measures to reduce risks of a fire starting and ensuring staff know how to respond in the right way
It’s important that businesses consider the risk of fire in any changes they make and ensure all staff are aware of fire safety in the workplace.
From 1st October new fire safety legislation comes into effect in England and Wales. This will mean that many businesses and building owners need to check if and how this affects them to ensure they are complying with the regulations.
Fire safety measures
The main changes are:
- All businesses will need to record a fire risk assessment and fire safety arrangements in full – regardless of the number of employees, and size or type of business.
- There are increased requirements for cooperation and coordination between Responsible Persons in multi-occupied buildings or those where the occupier and owner are not the same person.
- In residential buildings with two or more domestic premises residents must be provided with information on the risks from fire and the fire safety measures provided to keep them safe.
Reducing risk of fire
The campaign week will highlight these changes and highlight the advice that name of FRS can provide to ensure they remain complaint with the law. There’s plenty of advice and support for businesses from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service so they encourage anyone that has questions or may not be sure about fire safety to contact them so they can help.
Gavin Tomlinson, NFCC’s Protection and Business Safety Committee Chair, said: “Fire and rescue services are committed to helping all types of businesses reduce the risk of fire in the workplace and be compliant with fire safety law. We don’t expect businesses to be experts that’s’ why we are here to provide help and advice. We encourage any business to work with their fire service to help prevent fires to help them remain productive, safe and legal.”
