The LWF Blog
Fire Safety Engineering for Design – Risk Assessment & Fire Engineering – Part 57
November 29, 2021 12:33 pmLWF’s Fire Safety Engineering blog series is written for Architects, building designers and others in the construction industry to highlight and promote discussion on all topics around fire engineering. In part 56, LWF looked at how to define the scope of a risk assessment. In part 57, we consider defining the acceptability criteria of a risk assessment.
UK legislation (and that of other territories) is aimed mainly at protecting people – it is often referred to as life safety. Legislation lays down acceptable levels of risk for life safety purposes and this relates mainly to prescriptive fire safety solutions. Fire engineered solutions may be different but they are designed to meet or exceed the statutory requirements.
The insurer may also have an acceptable level of fire risk in order for them to agree to cover the business or organisation.
The management or owners of an organisation will have their own view of acceptability in terms of business continuity.
Commonly, the aim is to reduce the risks to a level that is ‘as low as is reasonably practicable’ (ALARP).
The basis of an ALARP assessment is to consider and measure fire risk against the effort, time and cost of controlling it. If the risk level is lowered to a level proportionate to the effort, time and cost required, then it is worth implementing.
In fact, if the ALARP assessment shows that the change would have been worthwhile and acceptable in terms of outlay and it was not implemented, the Responsible Person (as per the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005) could be considered culpable should a fire situation develop which endangers building occupants and which could have been avoided if the change had been implemented.
ALARP is not the only term used to describe this type of analysis. ‘So far as is reasonably practicable’ (SFAIRP) may also be used. Care should be taken when choosing which term to use, as in some parts of the world, ALARP and SFAIRP are interchangeable terms for the same process, while in others they describe similar but different processes.
The practical definition of ALARP fire risk may be found in national guidance. Where it is practical, relevant and appropriate to follow such guidance, it should ensure that life safety risks from fire are at an acceptable level.
Where it is preferred to use a fire engineered approach to fulfil the fire safety requirements of a design, it is expected that alternative risk control measures achieving the same level of safety will be employed.
In part 58 of LWF’s series on fire engineering, we will look at the assessment techniques used to assess fire risk. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this blog, or wish to discuss your own project with one of our fire engineers, please contact us.
Lawrence Webster Forrest has been working with their clients for over 25 years to produce innovative and exciting building projects. If you would like further information on how LWF and fire strategies could assist you, please contact the LWF office on 0800 410 1130.
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.