What to look for when doing a Fire Safety audit

Today we take a look at what we look for when doing a Fire Safety Audit.

Just picking on two elements today. Firstly we look at Fire Doors then we look at Fire Alarms.

Fire Doors, what to look for……

Do your doors have the correct smoke/heat seals fitted?
Do they have the correct gap between them?
Are closers fitted? Do they work and are they fire rated?
Does the door form part of a dedicated fire break?
Are the correct viewing panels fitted? If fitted, does the door have the correct glass?
Is the door fire rated to 30 mins or 1 hour? How do you tell if a door is fire rated?
If the door is fire-rated, is it correct for your premises?
Old doors sometimes have Asbestos to give them the fire rating, how do you tell?
Is there a routine check of fire doors? Is it recorded?
Do your doors open in the correct direction?
Are your doors the correct width for the number of people you have on the premises?
Do your doors need automatic holders?
Are your doors linked to the fire system?
Do your doors have thumb turn overrides fitted?
Do the doors lead to a dead end-fire route?

FIRE ALARMS:

Do you have one?
Do you need one?
Is it monitored? Should it be?
Is it just zone-based? Is it addressable?
Is it just call point based?
Are the backup batteries in date?
Is rotational call point testing being done?
Is it Life 1, 2 or 3 based?
Are there  Zone charts?
Is there a fire pack?
Do you have Fire Marshalls and Wardens trained and up to date?
Do you have a PAS79 based Fire Risk Assessment?
Do you know how to isolate a device?
Where do you log faults?

As you can see from the items above, Fire Safety can be a complex process. This is why you need to have a competent person completing it.