Fire safety in the office.

If you're responsible for an office environment, there are specific areas of fire safety you need to really pay attention to.

You must carry out a detailed assessment identifying the risks and hazards in a commercial premises. By law, if you are responsible for the premises, you need to make sure that a Fire Risk Assessment has been completed by someone competent to do so and that you record the findings. We're often asked to help people carry out a Fire Risk Assessment, but our role as the enforcing authority would make that a conflict of interest. However we do offer some advice on our Fire Risk Assessments page, including how to find a competent assessor.

Whilst landlords have responsibilities for fire safety and maintenance of the building, as tenants, you have legal responsibilities too.

Many offices think that fire safety is their landlord's responsibility, but this isn't actually true. Though landlords need to keep buildings structurally safe, tenants have responsibilities too. You will need to complete your own Fire Risk Assessment and make an emergency plan. You should also be mindful of other tenants and their safety, particularly if there is accommodation above or neighbouring your office.

The first step to improving your fire prevention strategy is identifying where things can go wrong. Our firefighters attend many fires in retail businesses across London, and we've noticed some common factors in these premises:

• Not planning appropriate escape routes - always take into account different people's abilities to respond to and escape from a fire. 
• Wedging fire doors open - properly installed and maintained fire doors can hold a fire back for 30 minutes, but only if they're closed. 
• Electrical equipment - fires often happen when portable items aren't properly tested and maintained, or when the electrical item/system itself isn't in good condition. We attend many fires caused by lighting placed too close to flammable materials, items left charging unattended, and overloaded sockets. This includes unsafe use of extension leads such as plugging them into other extension leads daisy-chaining or using unfused extension leads. 
• Smoking - smoking in inappropriate areas or smoking materials being disposed of carelessly
• Arson - leaving clutter, stock or rubbish in a publicly accessible place could become a target for arson. 

Though office environments pose their own risks and challenges when it comes to preventing fire, with a little planning you can keep your people, and your premises safe from fire. 

You may need to work with the landlord /owners/managers of upstairs or neighbouring accommodation, or of those in a shared office space, to make sure that your fire safety strategy doesn’t endanger any other occupants of the building.

• Make sure a Fire Risk Assessment has been completed by a competent person and ensure this is implemented and enforced.
• Make an emergency evacuation plan
• Make sure that fire safety training and fire drills are carried out regularly.
• Not everyone will be able to respond to and escape from a fire in the same way. Train your staff on how they can support disabled and vulnerable people during an evacuation
• Ensure maintenance and renovation workers are aware of existing fire safety precautions, that they identify if the work will impact fire safety measures and make arrangements to maintain fire safety throughout. Ensure you monitor and control any work that involves a spark or flame.
• Make sure that any changes to the layout of the office doesn’t interfere with the escape route.
• Ensure that deliveries are stored away from escape routes.
• You must have a way to detect and alert occupants of a fire. If you install detection systems these must be tested and maintained regularly. You may wish to consider a suppression system (sprinklers)
• Ensure relevant firefighting equipment is installed, tested and maintained by a competent person.
• Make sure all electrical items are regularly tested and maintained.
• Ensure your electrical system is regularly tested – at least once every year. The electrical system is subject to a 5 year Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) by a competent electrician
• Educate your staff about the risks of overloading sockets and make sure staff use electrical items such as chargers that are compatible with their device and recommended by the manufacturer.
• Educate your staff about the risks of e-bikes/e-scooters and where possible ensure these are not charged inside or on escape routes.
• Ensure that flammable or dangerous substances are stored in line with manufacturers guidance, not on escape routes and in minimal quantities.