General
It is important to understand that more than one piece of
fire safety legislation and/or fire safety guidance can be
applied to any individual premises. For instance take a school
the The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety)
Order 2005 and the Health and Safety (Safety Signs
and Signals) Regulations 1996 applies and there could be others.
Fire Safety guidance documents including
Guide 5 - Educational premises, Guide 1 - Offices
and shops, Guide 6 - Small and medium places of assembly or
Guide 7 - Large places of assembly may apply and if the school
is a boarding school then Guide 3 - Sleeping accommodation
could apply.
Introduction
Fire Safety in new and altered Hotels and Boardings Houses
are subject to the Building Regulations and the guidence for
fire matters are dealt with by Approved
Document Part B Fire Safety.
Within that document appendix G and H there is a list, of
other guidence documents that may be relevant.
When premises are occupied fire precautions are controlled
by The
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
and this order lays down legal requirements, check them out
at the above link.
Fire Safety Guide for England and
Wales
The most appropriate guide for Hotels, Boardings Houses and
like Premises is likely to be Guide
3 - Sleeping accommodation and can be downloaded
at the Department of Communities and Local Government web
site. This guide is for all employers, managers and owners
of premises providing sleeping accommodation. It tells you
about how you might comply with fire safety law, helps you
to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general
fire precautions you need to have in place. It applies to
premises where the main use is for sleeping accommodation.
The premises addressed in this guide include,
- Guest houses and bed and breakfast accommodation;
- Hotels and motels;
- Hostels, e.g. Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., youth hostels, bail
hostels or homeless persons’
accommodation;
- Refuges, e.g. family accommodation centres, halfway houses;
- Residential health and beauty spa centres;
- Residential conference, seminar and training centres;
- Student halls of residence and areas of sleeping accommodation
in other training institutions including military barrack
style quarters;
- Those areas of buildings in boarding schools that provide
sleeping accommodation; • seminaries and other religious
colleges;
- The common areas of sheltered accommodation, where care
is not provided (where care is provided, see residential
care guide);
- Holiday chalets, holiday flat complexes, camping, caravan
holiday parks (other than privately owned individual units);
and
- Areas in workplaces, where staff ‘sleeping-in’
is a condition of the employment or a business requirement,
as in licensed premises and hotels (but not including tied
accommodation such as separate flats, houses or apartments)
This guide addresses:
- Sleeping accommodation for staff;
- Sleeping, dining or other accommodation for guests/residents;
and
- Common areas for residents.
This guide is not intended for use in:
- Domestic premises occupied as a single private dwelling
(which includes private flats or rooms);
- Hospitals, residential care and nursing homes; and
- Prisons and other establishments where people are in lawful
custody.
It has been written to provide guidance for a responsible
person, to help them to carry out a fire risk assessment in
less complex premises. If you read the guide and decide that
you are unable to apply the guidance, then you should seek
expert advice from a competent person. More complex premises
will probably need to be assessed by a person who has comprehensive
training or experience in fire risk assessment. However this
guide can be used for multi-occupied buildings to address
fire safety issues within their individual occupancies.
Fire Risks.
Hotels and Boarding Houses are considered to be a high fire
risk, because of the life risk Fires usually occur as the
result of carelessness and if some person accidentally or
deliberately negates the fire precautions. This can result
in serious fire situations causing the possible loss of life
and the owner's business being threatened. The risks are similar
to those in domestic property however the level of risk varies
defendant on the number of staff, guests and as the premises
are occupied twenty four hours a day, this increases the risk.
The five principle fire risks are,
- Carelessly discarded smoking materials if it is allowed
to come into contact with combustible materials. A lighted
cigarette end will take a long time to ignite combustible
materials, which may occur in the sleeping hours, thereby
increasing the risk. Hopefully the fire detection system
would give an early warning of fire, which will not stop
the fire but could reduce the damage to negligible losses.
The use of signs and the prohibition of smoking in risk
areas would reduce the risk and constantly broadcast the
dangers to the staff and guests.
- Electrical Appliances are now a standard provision in
bed rooms and can be a source of fire if they have been
subjected to misuse. Occasionally an electrical faults on
electrical apparatus may be a source of fire, especially
if they have not been serviced regularly. All electrical
equipment should be tested annually and the staff and guests
kept informed of the possible dangers associated with the
different types of electrical equipment.
- Kitchens can be a high risk dependent on the size and
especially if the kitchen is not properly supervised. Full
dining facilities increase the risk but this is lessened
by having staff in attendance at all times.
- There is a high fire risk is store rooms where bedding,
towels, flammable materials and cleaning equipment are stored
. Flammable materials in the presence of chemical cleaner
may result in a higher fire risk if not store correctly.
House keeping and ensuring the store rooms are keep as tidy
as possible, will reduce the risk. Also ensure the dangers
are discussed at any training sessions.
- Tradesmen on the premises, especially those that use
apparatus that is capable of starting a fire, like blow
lamps, gas torches, metal angle cutters, etc. One needs
to ensure a high degree of supervision during and after
their presence. Give the area they have been working in
a through inspection and make sure no hot spots or small
fires have been missed.
Training.
During training sessions, not only detail and practicing
fire procedures, ensure part of the time is devoted to discussing
simple fire precautions in an attempt to prevent fires. Not
only is fire training required under law it also makes sense,
half an hour spent before the fire can save lives and it may
prevent a serious fire in the first place. |