Introduction to Fire Safety Management

➤ Ensuring access and egress and other appropriate
provisions for disabled people
➤ Arranging maintenance, testing and, where appropriate,
inspection of:
➤ Fire safety equipment
➤ Systems and procedures
➤ Emergency communication systems
➤ Monitoring any general maintenance/building works
that may affect fi re safety arrangements, including
the supervision, monitoring and instruction of
contractors
➤ Management of non-routine high fi re risk activities
including the issue of hot work permits
➤ Notifi cation to the authorities (fi re authority, building
control) of any changes that may affect fi re precautions,
e.g. changes to internal layout, extensions or
structural alterations and where appropriate if highly
fl ammable or explosive mixture levels alter
➤ Ensuring that relevant British Standards and other
appropriate standards are complied with.
The above list of responsibilities assigned to the fi re safety
manager appears quite extensive and it is likely that additional
competent persons will need to be appointed to
assist in the management of fi re safety. Therefore, additional
responsibilities of a fi re safety manager in a large,
complex organisation may also include the following:
➤ Appointment of fi re marshals/fi re wardens, fi re alarm
verifi ers, fi re incident controllers and members of
fi rst responder/fi re teams
➤ Undertaking a training needs analysis and development
of a training policy to ensure staff members
have necessary competencies
➤ Organising/conducting fi re safety reviews and audits
Figure 3.3 Fire fi ghting equipment must be appropriate
and adequately maintained
Organising for safety
➤ Ensuring the continued effectiveness of any automated
fi re safety system, e.g. fi re alarm and detection
systems
➤ Pre-entry fi re safety checks of the premises prior to
entry by members of the public
➤ Monitoring and reviewing the fi re safety manual
(log book) including false alarms and near miss fi re
events
➤ Recording of changes to the building for inclusion in
the operations and maintenance manuals or health
and safety fi le under CDM
➤ Contingency planning:
➤ Abnormal occupancy levels – failure or planned
preventive maintenance of fi re safety critical
systems
➤ Abnormal inclement weather conditions
➤ Collaborating with local authorities involved in
disaster planning and the assessment of potential
environmental impact of fi re (see Chapter 13).
The level of responsibility and accountability of the fi re
safety manager will need to refl ect the organisation;
however, any safety management structure should provide
for clear lines of responsibility, authority, accountability
and resources, in particular in relation to common
areas within multiple occupied buildings/premises.
The above management responsibilities may well be
assigned to a number of persons within an organisation.
Training records, for instance, may be the responsibility
of the human resources department and the maintenance
of fi re safety systems records may rest with the
facilities management or property services department.
3.2.7 Fire safety coordinator
In some cases the fi re safety manager will wish to delegate
some of his duties to an individual to coordinate the
management of fi re safety. This is particularly relevant in
the construction industry for larger projects, particularly
those that fall under CDM, where it is recommended
that each site has a fi re safety coordinator whose role
is to:
➤ Ensure all preventive and protective measures on
site are maintained
➤ Assist in the development of the construction site
fi re risk assessment
➤ Nominate and manage fi re marshals
➤ Ensure contractors operate in a way that minimises
the risk of fi re
➤ Manage the permit to work system for hot works
➤ Ensure effective arrangements for liaising with the
fi re service and other emergency service prior to
and at the time of an incident.
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