Reducing The Risk Of Arson
The same study suggests that, in an average week, arson results in:
- 3500 deliberately started fires;
- 50 injuries;
- two deaths; and
- a cost to society of at least £25 million.
The possibility of arson should be considered as a component of your risk assessment and it is one that you can do much to control. The majority of deliberately started fires occur in areas with a known history of vandalism or fire-setting. Typically, local youths light the fires outside the premises as an act of vandalism, using flammable materials found nearby. Appropriate security measures, including the protection of stored materials and the efficient and prompt removal of rubbish, can therefore do much to alleviate this particular problem.
There is a joint duty on local authorities and police to co-operate with other organisations (including fire authorities) to formulate and implement a strategy to reduce crime and disorder (including arson) in their local area. You should therefore seek advice from the local police or the fire authority who will involve the other agencies as appropriate. The Arson Prevention Bureau can provide further guidance on arson prevention measures for a range of building types.
Occasionally, arson attacks in the workplace are committed by employees or ex-employees. Employers and other workers should be aware of this potential threat and be alert for early signs, such as a series of unexplained small fires. Again, the police, fire authority or the Arson Prevention Bureau can provide further useful guidance.
Fire Detection And Warning
A fire in your workplace must be detected quickly and a warning given so that people can escape safely. Early discovery and warning will increase the time available for escape and enable people to evacuate safely before the fire takes hold and blocks escape routes or makes escape difficult.
The nature and extent of the fire detection and warning arrangements in your workplace will need to satisfy the requirements indicated by your risk assessment.
Fire Detection
All workplaces should have arrangements for detecting fire. During working hours, fires are often detected through observation or smell, and for many workplaces automatic fire detection equipment may not be needed.
However, you need to think about any parts of the workplace where a fire could start and spread undetected. This could be a storage area or a basement that is not visited on a regular basis, or a part of the workplace that has been temporarily vacated, for example at mealtimes. Fires that start and develop unnoticed can pose a serious danger to people in the workplace.
The usual method of protecting people in workplaces where fire could develop for some time before being discovered is to protect vital escape routes, particularly staircase routes, with fire-resisting construction which may include fire-resisting doors.
Installing an effective, reliable automatic fire detection system, linked to an effective fire warning system, can sometimes allow people to reassess the degree of structural fire protection required on escape routes. This can provide a more cost-effective and convenient fire precaution. However, the whole subject of trade-offs between structural protection and other fire protection systems is a complex one and such decisions should only be made after consultation with your local fire authority.
In some workplaces, such as those providing sleeping accommodation or care facilities, automatic fire detection and a high degree of structural protection are essential in ensuring a satisfactory standard of fire safety.
In small workplaces, it may be unnecessary to provide a sophisticated automatic fire detection system based on point-type fire detectors linked via control equipment to separate fire warning devices. In these cases, good quality, interlinked domestic smoke alarms (mains powered with battery back-up) could provide an automatic means of detecting fire. Each of these units contains a fire detector and a warning device and can operate independently or in conjunction with any other unit to which it is interlinked.
In other situations, for example where the only escape route from a room is through an outer room where a fire may start unnoticed, a single smoke alarm of the same type as described in the previous paragraph, positioned in the outer room, can provide an early warning and allow workers to escape before their route is cut off. Smoke alarms should conform with the requirements of British Standard 5446: Part 1.
Such basic smoke alarms tend to be more sensitive than smoke detectors used in more sophisticated fire detection/alarm systems. You need to be aware of any potential problems unwanted fire signals may cause. In some cases, unwanted fire signals can be reduced by using optical smoke alarms rather than ionisation ones.
This simple but effective way of providing automatic fire detection could provide a cost-effective solution to difficult situations where early warning is vital in ensuring the safe evacuation of employees. However, smoke alarms designed for domestic use are usually manufactured to different standards from those for automatic fire detection systems. The resulting reliability may therefore be lower and such smoke alarms may not be appropriate for your workplace, depending on the processes involved.
Whichever type of system you use, the detector type chosen should be appropriate for the premises to be protected, for example, a heat detector may function better than a smoke detector in a fume-laden or dusty environment but may not be appropriate for the rest of the protected premises. Choosing the right type of detector will reduce the chances of it giving false fire signals. False alarms can cause costly interruptions to manufacturing processes and business activities. They also increase the risk to occupants if the fire brigade is responding to a false fire call and is not so readily available to tackle a real fire.
Before installing an automatic fire detection system or a series of interlinked smoke alarms, it is advisable to consult the fire authority about what you propose. This can help make sure the system is appropriate to the circumstances of the workplace and avoid unnecessary costs.
Automatic fire detectors or smoke alarms do not remove the need to provide a means for people to manually raise a fire warning, and this will be essential in the majority of workplaces.
Source: Home Office.
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