Case Studies

Prohibition Notice Reversal By FCS Assessment

PROBLEM:

A Publican had a Prohibition Notice served on his premises due to two recent fires during Christmas 2008. With no action this order would have gone to court and most likely cost the landlord a very large fine and possibly closed his business.

The proprietor thought his Fire Safety Audit was sufficient. It had been completed in 2007 by a company that was brought in to install a Fire Alarm and their Fire Safety Audit service was very cheap.

The proprietor decided he would carry out his own assessment and carried this out by scoring out the information on the Fire Safety Audit and writing his own answers on the forms provided.

The Fire Brigade had taken steps to ensure the building was being managed properly and on inspection found it to be non-compliant in many areas, namely staff awareness and training and to ensure proper management checks were being carried out.

SOLUTION:

After an initial meeting with the Landlord and his staff it became apparent that not only did his staff not understand what was needed they were concerned for their safety in their place of work.

FCS Reading had visited the property on a few occasions and once a purchase order was agreed they set about completing a Fire Compliance & Safety Fire Risk Assessment on the property.

On receipt of the FCS Risk Assessment the landlord was unhappy as the assessor had picked up even more non-compliances than the initial fire brigade inspection. These non-compliances were explained in depth but the landlord still decided to show the local fire brigade the FCS Fire Risk Assessment, not only for his peace of mind, but to see if there were unnecessary non-compliances in the report.

A pre-inspection took place at the public house some eight days prior to the Fire Brigade inspection date to see if all points raised were at least being looked into. Call Points required moving and staff training had started with the management with further training now being booked.

RESULT:

On this pre-inspection the Brigade Inspecting Officer was satisfied that sufficient action was being taken and as long as the Landlord complied with the Fire Compliance & Safety Fire Risk Assessment there would be no further need to visit the property again and the Prohibition Notice was lifted immediately.

This Prohibition Notice, had it gone to court could have cost the landlord not only a hefty fine but most probably his business.

The Importance of Fire Doors - £30 v the lives of 60 children!

PROBLEM:

A Fire Risk Assessment carried out by Fire Compliance & Safety Ltd advised that a self-closing device be fitted to an existing fire door. The door was situated in a corridor which formed the only escape route from a nursery housing 60 children and was constantly left open by staff. 40 adults also occupy other areas of the building

SOLUTION:

The client was very reticent to make any changes, however he was convinced by the FCS Assessor undertaking the Fire Safety Audit of the importance of this route in the event of a fire and installed the correct closing device.

RESULT:

Three months later a six month old condenser tumble dryer caught light inside the laundry room, with the fire door firmly shut by the new closing device. As you can see the damage to the laundry room was considerable, but the corridor outside the room was unaffected and protected, keeping it smoke free and safe to evacuate all users of the building. The Fire Risk Audit carried out by Fire Compliance & Safety could well have saved the lives of many members of the public.