The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Fire Safety Management – Part 292

February 24, 2025 11:49 am

Lawrence Webster Forrest (LWF) is a specialist fire engineering and fire risk management consultancy whose aim is to give information on best practice in fire safety for facilities management personnel through this blog series. In part 291, LWF considered specific examples of real life fire situations where management deficiencies were determined to have been significant in the outcome of the fire. In part 292, we continue to discuss the impact of bad management on fire safety and the potential outcomes.

When there is a serious prosecution for failures in fire safety management, it is most commonly the case that a fire disaster has already taken place. However, it is not always the case. An assistant manager of a London bookshop received a suspended prison sentence, and therefore a criminal record, when deficiencies were found in the shop’s fire safety provision, even though no fire or injury had occurred. The conviction was overturned on appeal because the defendant was found to not have the power to deal with the issues found.

In the health and safety arena, it is commonly seen that conviction of the directors of a company for corporate manslaughter is a potential outcome in situations where death(s) have occurred as a result of the management’s duty of care relating to safety.

It is, therefore, essential for a defined responsibility for fire safety to be established, to ensure the effective management of fire safety in any organisation.

Within a large organisation, operational control of fire safety may be delegated to a professional fire safety manager, who may also manage safety and/or security.

In smaller organisations, the responsibility for fire safety may lie with a director, personnel manager, chief engineer etc. The position of the person responsible is not particularly important, provided there is adequate budget for fire safety measures and the incumbent is:

• Fully aware of the extent of their responsibilities
• Possessed of the authority to exert influence over all matters relating to fire safety
• Has adequate time to devote to fire safety
• Has adequate knowledge or the ability to access specialist advice
• Has the support of senior management to develop and implement policies

Fire safety should not have to compete with other areas of business demand for funding or approval of fire safety management policies or fire safety measures.

In part 293 of this series, LWF will look at the formulation of fire safety policies. In the meantime, if you have any queries about your own facilities or wish to discuss this blog series, please contact LWF on freephone 0800 410 1130.

Lawrence Webster Forrest is a fire engineering consultancy based in Surrey with over 35 years’ experience, which provides a wide range of consultancy services to professionals involved in the design, development and construction and operation of buildings.

 

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.