The Implications of Fire UK

The implications of fire in the UK. Fires could result in severe injury, pain and suffering and death. The harm could be through physical means such as smoke, heat and burns. Also, fire can be devastating to our livelihoods and business premises. We must also consider the psychological damage that may occur.

Moral Implications Of Fire

It would be immoral for any employer or responsible person not to consider the safety of everyone in a fire. Developing a good fire safety culture within work and at our work premises, will assist with keeping people safe. These are some moral considerations when dealing with fire safety. Next, let’s have a look at the financial and legal implications of fires.

Legal Implications of fire

The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2006 (RRFSO) is the specific fire safety regulation that employers have a legal duty to conform with. Alongside the standard duty under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. (HASAWA) which states that an employer has a legal duty to provide a safe workplace. As with all legal duties failure to comply with the duty could lead to fines and imprisonment, and legal notices. As a result, your premises may be closed for a period of time until sufficient rectifications have been made. The cost attributed to compliance is small. This compares to the fines, loss of business reputation and higher insurance premiums if your premises are not compliant.

Lets have a look at some statistics published by the Home Office.

The Fire and Rescue Services attended 573,221 incidents in the year to June 2019. Resulting in a two per cent increase compared with the previous year (559,347). Of these incidents, there were 182,491 fires. This was a 14 per cent increase compared with the previous year (160,408) and was driven by a 28 per cent increase in secondary fires linked to the hot, dry 2018 summer.

Sadly there were 268 fire-related fatalities in the year ending June 2019 compared with 253 in the previous year (an increase of 6%). For the UK Government, the latest figures are available if you click here.

Financial Implications of Fire

It is estimated that the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) responding to fires costs the UK economy over £1 Billion pounds each year. As a business owner, you will be aware that certain false alarms can cost you money through lost production and interruptions to your working practices. Are you aware that if you generate too many false alarms and the FRS respond, then you could be liable to a fixed penalty? At the time of writing this was in the region of £300. That is an expense you could do without. Ensure that your fire alarm system is well maintained.

Thank you for reading through this article about the implications of fire in the UK. If you would like more information on UK reportable categories of a fire please click: https://aegisassociates.co.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=531&action=edit

You can also visit our website: www.aegisassociates.co.uk for further information and to ask us how we can improve fire safety at your business.