The LWF Blog

Fire Risk Assessment for Healthcare Premises – Managing Fire Safety – Part 96

July 18, 2022 9:45 am

LWF’s blog series for healthcare professionals aims to give information on best practice of fire safety in hospitals and other healthcare premises. In part 95 of Fire Risk Assessments for Healthcare Premises, LWF discussed how risk to people should be evaluated a fire risk assessment for healthcare premises. In part 96, we look at how to remove and reduce the hazards found in step 1 of the risk assessment.

Fire hazards discovered in healthcare premises as part of the fire risk assessment should be removed where possible. Where it is impossible to completely eradicate the hazard, reasonable steps should be taken to reduce or mitigate them.

The removal or reduction of fire hazards is an essential part of fire risk assessment and should take priority over other actions. When making changes to remedy the hazards posed, care should be taken to ensure other hazards and risk are not created.

In other words, when changes are to be made to processes or procedures within healthcare premises to remove or remedy hazards, that area should be subject to step 1 of a fire risk assessment to ascertain if any new hazard or fire risk is found.

The first step in remedying a fire hazard should be to remove the potential for ignition. Where that is not feasible, there are ways to reduce the risk caused by potential sources of ignition.

Whenever possible, a potential source of ignition should be replaced by a safer alternative.

Naked flame or radiant heaters should be replaced with fixed convector heaters or a central heating system. Portable heating appliances should be restricted where possible and practices should avoid moving them.

Electrical, mechanical and gas equipment should be installed, used and maintained in line with the manufacturer’s instructions. At the time of purchase/installation, the requirements for servicing, maintenance and regular checks should be entered into the maintenance schedule for the building.

Safe systems of work should be established and adhered to. They should be periodically re-evaluated to ensure they continue to be sufficient. More information on this can be found in HTM 05-03 Part A ‘General Fire Safety’.

In Part 97 of LWF’s blog series, LWF will continue to look at how potential sources of ignition can be risk-reduced in a healthcare setting. 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 LWF on freephone 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.