The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Facilities Management Personnel – Fire Safety Management – Part 293

March 3, 2025 11:52 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 292, LWF discussed the impact of bad management on fire safety and the potential outcomes. In part 293, we look at the formulation of fire safety policies.

Effective fire safety management is dependent upon the formulation of clear fire safety policies. The policies should be based on the understanding that the risk from fire is a pure risk in that it can only result in loss, rather than a speculative risk, which can result in profit or loss. An organisation’s fire safety policies should be bespoke for the needs identified and the loss potential faced.

The simplest fire safety management policy is to comply with the minimum fire safety requirements set by legislation. This type of policy will relate to life safety rather than property damage. The risk of property damage is then managed by purchasing appropriate insurance cover. While the policy may appear to be simple, implementation is strict and may be much more complex.

There is a significant difference in the amount of time and effort given to fire safety by an organisation which considers compliance with legislation to simply involve carrying out a fire risk assessment, and an organisation devoting greater time and effort where a fire risk assessment is just one tool in the fire safety management of the organisation.

In the case of more informed organisations, fire hazards will have been correctly identified and the consequences of fire well understood. Such organisations will have clearly defined policies to protect assets and critical facilities, which, in turn, supplement the basic requirements of legislation for life safety.

For instance, a large business may conclude the potential for fire loss in their retail buildings is such that they should all benefit from sprinkler protection. The insurer of the business is likely to have been involved in the decision and to have provided guidance on the benefits in terms of fire insurance premiums. Additionally, the business’ data processing installation might require gaseous suppression protection set to automatic at all times, which would require special safeguards for the areas’ occupancy.

In part 294 of this series, LWF will continue to discuss the effective management of fire safety.  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.