Application of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
What are the main rules under the order?
Who is responsible for meeting the order?
How do I meet the order?

Fire Safety Risk Assessment

Step 1 – Identify the hazards within your premises
Step 2 – Identify people at risk
Step 3 – Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk
· The general fire precautions you may need to take
Step 4 – Record, plan, instruct, inform and train
Step 5 – Review
Enforcing the order
Vicarages, Rectories & other church housing

Application of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

The Order replaces most fire safety legislation with one simple order. It means that any person who has some level of control in premises must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk from fire and make sure people can safely escape if there is a fire. All church buildings, including places of worship, halls, parish centres etc., count as ‘Places of public assembly’ and are graded as ‘Small’ if the capacity is below 60, ‘Medium’ if the capacity is between 60 and 300 and ‘Large’ if 300 or more. These sizes also refer to the use of tents, marquees or other temporary buildings for any function held by the church. In addition outdoor activities, such as services, fairs, barbecues and other social events are also counted as ‘public assemblies’ and appropriate precautions are to be taken.

What are the main rules under the order?

You must:

• carry out a fire-risk assessment identifying any possible dangers and risks;
• consider who may be especially at risk;
• get rid of or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably possible and
• provide general fire precautions to deal with any possible risk left;
• take other measures to make sure there is protection if flammable or explosive materials are used or stored;
• create a plan to deal with any emergency and, in most cases, keep a record ofyour findings; and
• review your findings when necessary.

Who is responsible for meeting the order?

Under the order, anyone who has control of premises or anyone who has a degree of control over certain areas or systems may be a ‘responsible person’. For church buildings and outdoor venues, the PCC is the 'Corporate Body' and is responsible for seeing that legislative requirements are implemented. It is recommended that someone is appointed by the PCC to be the 'Responsible Person' on their behalf.

How do I meet the order?

If you are the responsible person, you must ensure a fire-risk assessment is carried out, although you can pass this task to some other competent person. However, you will still be responsible, in law, with the PCC, for meeting the order. The responsible person must as far as is reasonably practical make sure that everyone on the premises, or nearby, can escape safely if there is a fire. This is different from previous legislation in that you must consider everyone who might be on your premises, whether they are employees, visitors (including workmen) or members of the public, for example. You should pay particular attention to people who may have a disability or anyone who may need special help.

If the PCC hires out part of the building for others to use, then the hirers are legally responsible for the safe conduct of their activities while they are using the building. The Conditions of Hire must ensure that such users are aware of their responsibilities. Regular users, for example a play-group using a church hall, should appoint their own 'responsible person' and co-operate with you in maintaining a firesafe environment for all.

If your church is using premises hired from someone else, then you are under a similar obligation to co-operate with the building’s owner or landlord or agent and other users of the building. You should be supplied with information on the fire safety risk assessment, and may need to carry out your own assessment for your particular activity. The order says that you must manage any fire-risk in your premises. Fire authorities no longer issue fire certificates and those previously in force will have no legal status. You must still carry out a fire-risk assessment but any fire certificates you have may be useful as a good starting point.

If your premises have been designed and built in line with modern building regulations (and are being used in line with those regulations), your structural fire precautions should be acceptable. You will still need to carry out a fire-risk assessment and make sure that you keep up all fire precautions and maintenance routines. The guides to the requirements of the Order all acknowledge that historic buildings may not be capable of structural modification and other ways of managing the fire-risk may be needed instead.

Fire Safety Risk Assessment

Step 1 – Identify the hazards within your premises
You need to identify:

• sources of ignition such as naked flames, heaters, cooking, electrical equipment or arson;
• sources of fuel such as waste materials, display materials, textiles (including vestments and choir robes), stored candles; and
• sources of oxygen such as air conditioning.

Step 2 – Identify people at risk
You will need to identify those people who may be especially at risk such as:

• people working near to fire dangers;
• people working alone or in isolated areas (such as in ringing chambers; storerooms);
• children or parents with babies; and
• the elderly or infirm and people who are disabled.

Step 3 – Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk
Evaluate the level of risk in your premises. You should remove or reduce any fire hazards where possible and reduce any risks you have identified. For example, you should:

• replace highly flammable materials with less flammable ones;
• make sure you separate flammable materials from sources of ignition;
• have a no-smoking policy; and
• minimise materials and opportunities for an arsonist to use.

When you have reduced the risk as far as possible, you must assess any risk that is left and decide whether there are any further measures you need to take to make sure you provide a reasonable level of fire safety.

It is impossible to give detailed guidance for every building. However, the minimum you should consider will include the following.

A fire-detection and warning system
You must have a suitable fire-detection and warning system. This can range from a shouted warning to an electrical detection and warning system. Whatever system you have, it must be able to warn people in all circumstances. And don't forget those in remote areas.

A way of fighting a small fire
It may be acceptable to have sealed multi-purpose fire extinguishers with a guaranteed shelf life. As a rule of thumb you should have one 9 litre (or equivalent) extinguisher for every 200 square metres (m2) of floor space with at least one on each floor. It is preferable for all extinguishers to operate the same way.

The following extinguishers are suitable for use in church buildings:
Water, water with an additive (eg 'Hydrospray'), foam (particularly for oil fires in boiler rooms), foam or AFFF spray extinguishers, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) particularly for electrical equipment fires.

The following extinguishers are not recommended:

Dry powder - can be very expensive to clean up after one has been used; Halon - no longer allowed in the UK.

Safe routes for people to leave the premises
The ideal situation is when there is more than one escape route from all parts of the premises, although this is not always possible. If only one route is available, you may need to make it fire-resisting (protected) or install an automatic fire-detection system on the route and adjacent areas. The distance people need to go to escape (the travel distance) should be as short as
possible. The travel distance should be measured from the farthest point in a room to the door to a protected stairway or, if there is no protected stairway, to the final exit from the building.

If there is only one escape route, the travel distance should not normally be more than 18 metres. This distance should be shorter (12 metres or less) in any parts of the premises where there is a high chance of a fire starting or spreading quickly.
The distance can be longer (up to about 25 metres) where the chance of a fire starting or spreading quickly is very low.

If there is more than one escape route, the travel distance should not normally be more than 45 metres (around 25 metres in areas where the risk of fire is high and about 60 metres in areas where the risk of fire is very low).

Stairways, corridors and areas near the fire exits should be kept clear of obstructions and material which can catch fire.

The escape route should lead to a final exit and a safe place.

If the stairway is not protected, the travel distance should be in line with those suggested above for single escape routes and the final exit should be easy to see and get to from the stairway at ground-floor level.

High-risk rooms should not generally open directly into a fire-protected stairway.

If your fire-risk assessment shows that people using any floor would not be aware of a fire, you may need other fire-protection measures, for example, a warning system, perhaps with automatic fire-detection. You should follow the above guidelines with caution. You must look at each part of the premises and decide how quickly people would react to a warning of fire. If you are in any doubt you should read the more detailed guidance published by the Government (see below) or get expert advice.

Suitable fire exit doors
You should be able to use fire exit doors and any doors on the escape routes without a key and without any specialist knowledge. In premises used by the public or large numbers of people, you may need push (panic) bars or push pads.

Other things to consider

• Whether you need emergency lighting.
• Suitable fire-safety signs in all but the smallest premises.
• Training for your staff, including volunteers or anyone else you may reasonably expect to help in a fire.
• A management system to make sure that you maintain your fire safety systems.

Some very small and simple premises may be able to satisfy all these steps without difficulty. However, you should still be able to show that you have carried out all the steps.

Step 4 – Record, plan, instruct, inform and train
In this step you should record, plan, instruct, inform and train. You will need to record the dangers and people you have identified as especially at risk in Step 1 and Step 2. You should also record what you did about it in step 3. A simple plan can help you achieve this.

You will also need to make an emergency plan, tailored to your premises. It should include the action that you need to take in a fire in your premises or any premises nearby. You will need to give staff and volunteers, including sidesmen and women, instructions including information and training about the risks in the premises. You may wish to appoint 'fire marshals', who will need more thorough training, for special events. Arrangements need to be made to give contractors and other workmen who visit your premises, either regularly or casually, the necessary information on your fire safety arrangements.

Step 5 – Review
You should make sure your fire-risk assessment is up to date. You will need to re-examine your fire-risk assessment if you suspect it is no longer valid, such as after a 'near miss' - an incident in which you almost had a fire - and every time there is a significant change to the level of risk in your premises. This could include:

• alterations to the building,
• if you store more materials which could catch fire easily;
• a change in the type or number of people using your premises.

If you alter your premises
In most cases you will be able to change your premises. However, you must remember that you will be responsible for managing the risk you create and you will still have to follow the planning process and building regulations. You will need to look at your fire-risk assessment again and look at how the changes will affect the risk in your premises. You should assess if your risk-management measures are adequate and if you need to take any further action.

In some higher risk premises, for example, those in which the risk to life can be said to be higher than normal or where particularly complicated fire-safety arrangements are needed, the fire authority will be able to issue an alterations notice. Under the alterations notice, you must tell them about any changes you plan to make to premises if those changes would create a significant increase in the risk.

Enforcing the order
Fire authorities will be the main agency responsible for enforcing all fire-safety legislation in non-domestic premises. They will target their resources and inspections at those premises that present the highest risk. All fire authorities will continue to look into complaints about fire safety, carry out investigations after fires where poor fire-safety management is discovered and may carry out targeted inspections.

If you do not meet the order, the fire authority will provide practical advice or, if the risk is serious, a formal notice. Except in the most serious cases, the fire authority will work with you to achieve a satisfactory level of fire safety. If there is a very serious risk to life, the fire authority can issue a notice preventing the premises being used for certain things (such as sleeping), or preventing people from using all or part of the premises. This power is shared with housing authorities in properties which several households live in.

In all cases you will have a right of appeal, both informally and formally.

An informal appeal, normally to a more experienced fire-safety manager, can sometimes identify a different way of meeting the order. If this is not successful, you can appeal formally to a magistrate. You can also agree with the enforcing authority to ask for a formal decision from the Secretary of State on a solution if you cannot agree about technical issues.

Vicarages, Rectories & other church housing
These are usually single-family dwellings, and so exempt from the new legislation.

But of course members of the public are often admitted to meet with the incumbent or another minister. It is not thought that this will make such buildings 'places of public assembly'. However where a parsonage is directly attached to, or actually part of a church building which does come under the new legislation then the risk assessment of the building should cover the parsonage as well.
Churches who run their own hostels for accommodating church workers and/or visitors will need to heed the new legislation as it applies to 'Sleeping accommodation'.

Advice and information
If you need more practical advice or information after you have carried out your fire risk assessment, your Fire and Rescue Service may be able to help you (see under ‘Fire’ in the phone book).

You can get the relevant official Guides; these are:

Small and medium places of assembly
Large places of assembly
Open air events and venues (still to be published as at Dec 2006)
For churches operating offices and/or shops: Offices and shops
For churches operating hostels or other sleeping accommodation: Sleeping accommodation
These guides can be obtained from good bookshops (£12 each) or by downloading them free of charge from the internet at www.firesafetyguides.communities.gov.uk .

Also available from:
DCLG Publications, PO Box 236, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7NB
Phone: 0870 1226 236
Fax: 0870 1226 237
Textphone: 0870 1207 405
E-mail: odpm@twoten.press.net

You can get advice on reducing the risk of arson from the Arson Prevention Bureau by phoning 020 7216 7525.

The Churches' Main Committee has a free down-loadable document 'Fire Risk Assessment Principles for Church Premises' available from www.cmainc.org.uk - follow the link from 'Fire Safety' on the home page index.

The DAC has a consultant on fire precautions - contact through the Pastoral and Advisory Secretary.

The DAC already has several Advisory Leaflets dealing with some aspects of fire safety:

AC06 Fire Prevention; AC33 Fire Safety; AC28 Oil Storage; AC26 Storage of Petrol; AC36 No Smoking Regulations.

It is likely these will be extended to give churches more detailed guidance on how to meet their obligations; this will be led by the queries that are received from churches.
Much of the above text is © Crown Copyright from 'A short guide to making your premises safe from fire', published by the Department for Communities and Local Government; its use is acknowledged with thanks.