As a responsible person you need to comply with the Articles of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The articles which impose requirements for fire safety within the premises are 8-22 and 38 these are also known as your fire safety duties. The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order can be viewed in full here.

The first step towards complying with fire safety law is completing a fire risk assessment.

You then need to make sure there are:

• Measures to reduce the risk of fire and fire spread
• Means of escape that can be used at all material times
• Means of detecting a fire and alerting/ giving warning to those on the premises
• Means for fire fighting
• Arrangements for action to be taken in the event of fire
• Arrangements for making sure anything put in place is tested regularly and works correctly
• Arrangements for informing others of what to do in the event of fire.

Overall your responsibility is to try and avoid a fire, whilst making sure if there was a fire people within the premises are made aware and can evacuate safely.

A Fire Safety Audit is a compulsory inspection by a fire safety inspecting officer, generated by a risk based inspection programme. A Business Safety Visit is an informal visit by your local fire crew to provide safety advice.

You can find out more about these on our fire safety visits page.

Under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005. A responsible person is the employer, the person with control of the premises, or the owner. This always starts with the employer so if the premises are a workplace the employer will be the responsible person.

However, any person who has to any extent control of the premises or anything in them can also be held responsible as well as the responsible person. This could extend to staff members, fire risk assessors, fire alarm engineers, contractors, etc.

Yes. The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 requires that the premises are equipped, to the extent that is appropriate, with appropriate firefighting equipment. In most premises this will be in the form of fire extinguishers.

The only premises we do not expect fire extinguishers to be provided in are flats.

In a block of flat yes. The door should provide a minimum of 30minutes fire resistance, be fitted with cold smoke seals, intumescent strips and a self-closing device. If there is a letter plate in the door this should also be intumescent.

If your flat has independent access straight from outside there are a number of other factors to consider before answering this question. Please contact us for further information.