Fire Safety Training: What Building Managers Need To Know
New legislation is set to bring in sweeping changes to building safety regulation for ‘higher risk buildings’ in England. In this article, Claire Wright, Head of Training at the Fire Protection Association (FPA), explores what building managers and those responsible for fire safety need to know to prepare themselves for these upcoming changes and, crucially, ensure competency.
The Building Safety Bill and several other new pieces of legislation will aim to ensure that high standards are continuously met throughout a building’s lifecycle. The regulations will place new competency requirements on the ‘accountable person’ and their appointed ‘Building Safety Manager’, who must ensure and maintain correct fire safety and procedures in a building.
While building owners and managers will not be expected to have all the answers straight away, it’s important to ensure that those responsible for fire safety are fully trained and ready to meet these changes.
Know Your Building
Protecting a building from fire starts with understanding the materials it has been constructed with and how it has been designed, as both design and material choice have implications for fire safety. For example, we’re currently seeing a shift to more natural materials such as timber being used in construction which, given wood is a combustible material, may place very different requirements upon a fire safety strategy and systems. The best way to fully understand the fire risks inherent in a building’s construction and design is through a thorough risk assessment.
Review Your Fire Safety Strategy
A detailed risk assessment will help building safety managers formulate an effective fire safety plan, including an evacuation strategy, and be able to recognise the fire safety-related equipment most suitable for their premises, such as detection systems and protected means of escape. This risk assessment should include the role of fire detection and alarm systems, smoke control, and fire suppression systems where applicable.
In certain cases, premises design and associated fire risk assessment recommendations may require the installation of sprinkler systems. For example, guidance provided in Approved Document B Volume 1 requires the installation of sprinkler protection in all new residential buildings with a top floor over 11m above ground. Similarly, sprinklers may be required in other high-risk buildings where such protection is needed to mitigate fire risks, due to their proven effectiveness in preventing fire spread. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) found that, in incidents in both non-residential and residential buildings, sprinklers work as intended in 94% of cases and control or extinguish fires in 99% of cases.
Focus On Competency
For a fire safety strategy to be effective, those responsible for ensuring its requirements are met must be competent and have the correct level of training. Thorough and up-to-date training for building safety managers, and those responsible for implementing and maintaining fire safety strategies within a building, is vital to ensure risks are minimised and those responding in the event of a fire are competent. After all, a plan is no use at all if staff are not aware of it and are unable to implement it in the event of a fire.
Basic training of all staff, and a system for ensuring they regularly practise these skills, is essential if the risk assessment, fire strategy and the evacuation plan is going to succeed. It is also important to foster a culture where those responsible for fire safety can be honest about gaps in their knowledge and speak up about any help they might need to ensure their competency. For building safety managers, it is essential to keep on top of current standards, guidance and codes of practice that relate to fire safety in their building type, and how these impact on their fire safety management strategy.
Currently there is no consistent legal definition of competency. The Hackitt Review highlighted the lack of a coherent and comprehensive approach to competence and warned of its potential to compromise safety, and this has been one of the key focus points in the development of new and tighter regulation in relation to building safety. Specific competency requirements for those involved in the design, construction, and management – including fire risk assessment – of higher risk buildings have been developed and published, and industry groups are working to further embed these in training and certification schemes. It is essential for those involved in any facet of building design, construction, or management to ensure that these competency requirements can be proven, for example through third party accreditation and professional body membership.
Education and training is a key part of the FPA’s role, including providing those responsible for building safety with the tools to achieve and maintain competency. Find out more about the FPA’s training courses at: www.thefpa.co.uk/training
