A fire inspection and audit in Kent, means so much more to your business than just sticking a couple of extinguishers around your building. You need to be able to identify potential hazards, and find ways to remove or reduce them. Asking for a competent organisation to undertake and professional fire inspection and audit for your company ensures that you are not neglecting any of your legal obligations to protect both your staff and visitors to your premises.
Here at Risk Safety Service, we can provide efficient and comprehensive fire inspection and audits in Kent, for companies of all shapes and sizes. Our professional and highly trained fire safety inspectors can assess your property and offer advice on how best to ensure that you are well protected should the worst occur.
What Is A Fire Safety Audit?
First things first, lets look at what a Fire Safety is and what it means for your organisation.
Under the provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO), a business owner must put in place provisions to reduce the risk of fire causing death or serious injury to persons and to protect property. An organisation like ours, that can undertake a fire inspection and audit in Kent, can provide the business owner with practical fire safety advice and guidance to ensure they continue to meet their legal obligations.
A fire safety inspection and audit will examine both the work premises and any relevant procedures in place, to ascertain how well the premises is being managed in respect of fire safety. A fire inspection and audit in Kent will also ascertain whether or not the FSO is being complied with. Fire safety audits and inspections should always be conducted by competent and qualified individuals.
As part of the audit process, your fire safety auditor in Kent will also inspect all of the documentation held on file by the business owner. These are considered to be evidence of compliance, and once seen, your audit will follow ups with a with a visual examination of the premises. Such documents would include:
- A suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, including details of the significant findings.
- Fire safety policy.
- Emergency evacuation plan and fire drill records.
- Staff fire safety training records (induction/refresher/fire extinguishers).
- Fire alarm system test records by management and competent engineer.
- Emergency lighting system test records by management and competent engineer.
- Fire extinguisher test records by a competent person.
- Fixed electrical wiring test record for the building by a competent person.
- Portable Appliance Test (PAT) records for electrical equipment by a competent person.
In some cases, other evidence may be required depending on the nature of the premises and the activities being carried out by the organisation.
Why Are Fire Safety Inspections And Audits So Important?
A visual inspection is, of course, the easiest way to identify potential risks, with some being more obvious than others. But, your obligations as a business owner go beyond what is evident to the naked eye. You must also be in possession of certain documents that demonstrate how seriously you take fire safety in your workplace.
An audit of a workplace premises is usually prioritised by risk. Certain types of incidents are considered to be higher risk than others, with certain circumstance triggering the need for a new fire inspection and audit in Kent to be carried out. These could include:
- A complaint made about an alleged fire risk
- A new audit carried out after a fire in your premises
- A follow-up audit to ensure compliance after a previous audit
- In consultation with other authorities (e.g. premises licence application).
- On the request from other user of the building, or owners
Our fire inspections and audits in Kent are just part of the way in which we can help your business to remain a safe environment for your staff and visitors. We can also assist you with ongoing staff training, documentation and recording systems and fire safety E-learning courses. Whatever your needs in respect of fire safety in Kent, don’t leave it to chance.