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			Note for Guidance The Fire Safety Advice Centre
Open Air Events and Venues
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. Legislation Fire Safety in Open Air Events and Venues 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 Open Air Events and Venues are likely to be Guide 9 - Open air events and venues and can be downloaded at the Department of Communities and Local Government web site. This guide is for all employers, managers, organisers of events, occupiers, and owners of open air events and venues. It tells you what you have to do to 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. This guide is intended for open air events, and venues, such as, Theme parks Zoos Music concerts and festivals Sporting events Race meetings Fairgrounds Street festivals Religious festivals Balloon festivals Car-boot sales County fairs, and Other similar events. This guide does not cover, Sports stadia Permanent buildings or structures Large temporary structures and Air-supported structures. Where your event or venue includes the use of these, reference should be made to the appropriate guides in this series. The guide has been written to provide guidance for a responsible person to help them to carry out a fire risk assessment of less complex open air events or venues. If you read the guide and decide that you are unable to apply the guidance, then you should seek 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 at a large event to address fire safety issues within a specific area such as a marquee. Fire safety is just one of many safety issues management must address to minimise the risk of injury or death to staff and the public unlike most of the other safety concerns, fire has the potential to injure or kill large numbers of people very quickly. This guidance is concerned with fire safety only, but many of the measures discussed here will impact upon other safety issues and therefore it is recognised that these differing safety demands can sometimes affect one another and management should consult other interested agencies (e.g. Health and Safety Executive (HSE)), where necessary, to confirm that they are not contravening other legislation/guidance. Further Information PAS 51:2004 Guide to industry best practice for organizing outdoor events. Written by experts in its field, PAS 51 Guide to industry best practice for organizing outdoor events, it provides good practice guidance for the organizing of all types of outdoor events, ranging from one-day shows to a short-term series of events or festivals. It was developed to assist events organizers, suppliers, inspecting officers and training bodies with health and safety, and the security issues related to outdoor events. This handout provides a general overview and basic information on this topic. It may not apply to everyone, consequently to find out if this guide applies to you and to get more information on this subject, study all the relevant legislation, guides and British/European Standards. Also you should seek advice from an expert on the subject or your local Fire Safety Officer or Fire Safety Professional. Merseyside Fire Liaison Panel. Permission is granted to print and photocopy this material for nonprofit educational uses. [Index] [Advice Centre] This page was last checked and modified on Thursday, 3 April, 2008 9:21