Fire safety is at the forefront of many people’s minds at the moment, and in the care sector, this is no different. Here, Richard Sutton, general manager at Horbury Property Services, looks at fire risk assessments and why it is so important that fire compartmentation is properly inspected
Back in June this year, the Government ordered more than 17,000 care homes, private hospitals and hospices to carry out checks in relation to the fire safety of their buildings. Serious breaches were revealed within a number of hospital trusts. While some were shown to have failings in relation to basic fire standards, others were warned that a failure to properly compartmentalise areas was putting patients at intolerable risk if fire broke out.1
With care homes occupied by many vulnerable and immobile people, the fire strategy in such an environment needs to be given extra special consideration; for example, 30 minutes’ fire protection, which is offered by a standard fire door, may not be enough.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a duty holder (who is required to be a competent person within the organisation or an external specialist) needs to be appointed to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment on all sleeping accommodation in England and Wales. The fire risk assessment should be detailed and rigorous, covering many aspects, one of which is ensuring the integrity of fire compartmentation, including fire doors.
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