Legislation
If you are an employer, or buying fire protection products for your company, this guide summarizes what you have to do to comply with the law relating to fire issues.
Why should you protect yourself and others from fire?
Fire KILLS. In 1997, UK fire brigades attended over 36,000 fires in the workplace. These fires killed 30 people and injured over 2600.
Fire Costs MONEY. The cost of a serious fire can be high and afterwards many businesses do not reopen.
Between the "Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997" and the "Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1992 (as amended) they require you to:
- Conduct a Fire Risk Assessment of your work place (you must consider all your employees and all other people who may be affected by a fire in the workplace and as you are required to make adequate provision for any disabled people with special needs who use or may be present at your premises)
- Identify the significant findings of the risk assessment and the details of anyone who might be especially at risk in case of fire (these must be recorded if you employ more than five people).
- Provide and maintain such fire precautions as are necessary to safeguard those who use your workplace.
- Provide information , instruction and training to your employees about the fire precautions in your workplace.
Means of Fighting Fire
You need to have enough fire fighting equipment in place for your employees to use, without exposing themselves to danger, to extinguish a fire in its early stages. The equipment must be suitable to the risks and appropriate staff will need training and instruction in it's proper use. In small premises, having one or two portable extinguishers in an obvious location is all that is required. In larger or more complex premises, a greater number of portable extinguishers, strategically sited throughout the premises, are likely to be the minimum required. Other means of fighting fire may need to be considered.
Checklist
- Are the extinguishers suitable for the purpose and of sufficient capacity?
- Are there sufficient extinguishers sited throughout the workplace?
- Are the right types of extinguishers located close to the fire hazards and can users gain access to them without exposing themselves to risk?
- Are the locations of the extinguishers obvious or does their position need indicating?
- Have the people likely to use the fire extinguishers been given adequate instruction and training?
- Have you included the use of fire-fighting equipment in your emergency plan?
Maintenance and Testing
Your fire extinguishers should be checked annually by a competent engineer, complying with BS 5306: Part 3 : 1985.
Returns
All equipment supplied by Mainpoint is new and it is checked to ensure that it is in full working order prior to despatch. However, in the unlikely event that anything should become damaged whilst being delivered to you or you wish to return an item under warranty, please inform us within 3 working days of delivery/incident. Failure to inform us within three days may negate any claim against Mainpoint for damaged goods. We will arrange for a courier to collect the item(s) and deliver to you a replacement at the same time. We will undertake to complete this process within 14 working days of notification.
In order to help us with our total customer satisfaction pledge, please check all goods on delivery. Goods for collection must be made available to us at the designated time/date. Please address all returns to:
Mainpoint Returns Dpt
Unit 1A
AMV Business Centre
Lansdown Industrial Estate, Gloucester Road
Cheltenham
GL51 8PL
Courier charges for returns due to faulty goods/warranty issues are the responsibility of Mainpoint. We reserve the right to charge for full or part payment of carriage costs in the event of equipment/goods being returned for reasons outside of manufacturers warranty/fault or damage in transit.