We are an established provider of fire safety advice, fire risk assessments, fire safety training, site survey compliance audits, Building Control applications, and an advocacy service to liaise on your behalf with Local Authority Fire Services and other Industry Regulators. We have experience in all workplace industries, processes and premises that require compliance with The Fire Safety Order 2005.
We fully engage with you, whether you are a small business or large organisation, to deliver cost effective fire safety compliance assurance that is tailored to suit your needs, allowing you to focus more on the primary task of running your business profitably and safely.
“Following a significant fire event, many businesses never entirely recover – losing orders, contracts, key employees, or simply go out of business soon after, resulting in lost jobs and services to the community.”Source: Fire Protection Association & Arson Prevention Bureau
If you need advice on ensuring your workplace is fire safety compliant, or perhaps you require a specific service, please feel free to or use the contact form for a no obligation advisory response. Download our FREE Fire Safety Logbook here!
About Us
Principal Consultant Eddie Ember has over 30 years experience in both Local Authority and Ministry of Defence Fire & Rescue Services, engaging with owners & occupiers of premises across a diverse range and scope of industry, workplace environments & processes, providing life safety and business risk management advice, compliance auditing, benchmark profiling to mandatory fire safety legislation and carrying out fire risk assessments throughout the UK.
Our consultants are members of appropriate professional bodies, The Institute of Fire Engineers, (IFE), appointment as Technicians on the Engineering Council of the IFE, a foundation degree from the University of Central Lancashire or Level 4 Diploma from The Fire Service College in Fire Safety Engineering, NEBOSH qualifications, a Fire Service regulatory or audit background and an analytical ‘risk averse’ ethic. All these qualities underpin the Peninsula consultancy’s competence that you can trust and depend on to carry out a full fire safety compliance health check and fire protection package, providing you with the peace of mind your business, employees and customers demand.
We also engage with other professionals who undertake the provision, servicing and maintenance of fire equipment. As truly independent consultants, we don’t have a ‘commission incentive’ with any fire equipment providers, but we will always assist and advise you to use only those that are endorsed as third party certified fire protection companies, providing approved fire safety systems, equipment, materials, and service support.
“Third-party certification schemes for fire protection products and related services are an effective means of providing the fullest possible assurances, offering a level of quality, reliability and safety that non-certificated products may lack.”Source: Department of Communities & Local Government
Peninsula Fire Safety Consultants are independently assessed, certified and provisioned with Professional Indemnity & Public Liability insurances.
FAQ's
What is an Emergency Plan?
You need to have an emergency plan for dealing with a fire situation. The purpose of an emergency plan is to ensure that the people in your premises know what to do if there is a fire and that the premises can be safely evacuated. If you or your organisation employ five or more people or your premises are licensed or an alterations notice requiring it is in force, then details of your emergency plan must be recorded. Even if it is not required, it is good practice to keep a record.
You must give clear and relevant information and appropriate instructions to your staff and the employers of other people working in your premises, such as contractors, about how to prevent fires and what they should do if there is a fire. If you intend to employ a child, you must inform the parents of the significant risks you have identified and the precautions you have taken. You must also cooperate and coordinate with other responsible people who use any part of the premises. It is unlikely that your emergency plan will work without this.
Your emergency plan should be based on the outcome of your fire safety risk assessment and be available for your employees, their representatives (where appointed) and the enforcing authority.
In very small premises the emergency plan may be no more than a fire action notice. However, in larger more complex premises the emergency plan will need to be more detailed and compiled only after consultation with other occupiers and other responsible people, e.g. owners, who have control over the premises or building.
We can assist you in constructing an Emergency Plan relevant to your premises, please feel free to or use the contact form for a no-obligation advisory response.
I own a holiday cottage that I only ‘let out’ for a few months of the year, do I still need a fire risk assessment?
New Fire Safety Law for Owners of Guest Accommodation including Airbnb
The tragedy of Grenfell Tower and subsequent Inquiry has brought about many necessary changes to UK fire safety legislation. As of 1st October 2023, the Government has brought the holiday let industry into the scope of the Fire Safety Order 2005.
Peninsula Fire Safety Consultants have been engaging with both Local Authorities and the fire safety industry as a third-party accredited company, and as members of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE), we are committed to being proactive in providing relevant and comprehensive guidance to holiday let owners in making sure their guests are safe from fire and the property is compliant.
There are numerous issues to address in the new Home Office guidance, too many to list in this article, however, most of it is based on what should already be in your guest accommodation.
The following requirements are not exhaustive but in summary, you must provide your guests with an Emergency Plan to make sure they know what to do in a fire, the property must have working smoke alarms in most rooms (heat alarms in kitchens) that are interlinked, carbon monoxide alarm for rooms with open fires or wood burning stoves, emergency lighting or torches, fire extinguishers or blankets, clear escape routes, substantial doors to withhold a fire (hollow core doors will not be compliant) and exit doors from the property must be able to opened from the inside without a key in an emergency.
The most important change however to existing fire safety legislation for holiday let owners is the requirement for the owner to carry out a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment AND record it in writing, this assessment will be the focus of an audit carried out by the Enforcing Authority (your County Fire & Rescue Service) should they visit your property and it must identify the risks of fire and the measures you have put in place to reduce the likelihood and severity of fire in the first place as well as documented evidence of the servicing of electrical and gas/heating oil installations.
Holiday let owners are strongly advised to download the free information contained in the Home Office document “A Guide to making your small paying guest accommodation safe from fire” You can carry out the fire risk assessment yourself if you feel competent to do so and there is a template Fire Risk Assessment in this guidance. Alternatively, you can engage a fire safety professional to carry this out on your behalf.
We can carry out a full fire safety risk assessment and general fire precautions advisory service on your behalf, please feel free to or use the contact form for a no-obligation advisory response.
I’ve been informed by the Fire Service that despite the fact I have a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA), it is neither suitable or sufficient, why?
Hopefully, the Fire Service Inspector has explained this to you at the time where the shortfalls are in your FRA, some of the most common reasons however are listed below.
‘The FRA did not contain sufficient evidence or identification of fire hazards or people who may be affected’ – this is most likely to be the result of the FRA being carried out by someone in good faith but they simply did not have the necessary competence or training to undertake a risk identification process, whilst the Fire Safety Order gives scope for an Owner or Occupier to carry out his or her own FRA in simple low-risk premises, a larger or more complex facility will require a ‘recognised industry’ competency, skill and experience level of the assessor.
Unlike the FRA process, any formal inspection of your business premises by the Fire Service is actually an ‘audit’ of your overall fire safety measures, awareness and control of the risk together with your fire safety management strategy. This audit is very much ‘evidence-based’ and your FRA probably doesn’t contain enough detailed information, for example, if you have stated that ‘the fire alarm is tested weekly and serviced regularly’ but you do not have the supporting documentation in your Fire Safety Logbook, then this statement fails the ‘acid test’ of evidence. Download your free Fire Safety Logbook here!
It may be due to the FRA being carried out some time ago and since then, your premises has undergone a change of work process, (use and storage of flammable materials etc.), increased employee capacity, or a refurbishment or building extension has been completed and none of this has been accounted for in the FRA as an amendment at the time or during a subsequent review of the document.
Reviews…! Your existing FRA is very much a dynamic ‘Live’ document and as such it should be revisited periodically, there is no set time frame for this process, but most Fire Service Inspectors recommend that a review is undertaken at least annually. If your FRA is more than 12 months old, and there are other fire safety management issues evident at your premises during the audit, then the Inspector would be entirely justified in raising the effectiveness of your FRA peer-review procedure.
We can carry out a full fire safety risk assessment or review of your business premises or liaise with the Fire Service, following a critical inspection audit, on your behalf, please feel free to l or use the contact form for a no-obligation advisory response.
I need to have a fire alarm installed, how can I be sure that I’m going to have an adequate and code-compliant system for my business premises?
Initially, a simple search of the fire safety system installer or equipment providers’ web page should give you at the very least, an initial confidence that you have sourced a ‘third party accredited’ company. For fire alarms, emergency lighting or fire fighting equipment for example, look for a BAFE logo, for fire doors, look for TRADA, BWF or Certifier logos, for fire-resisting rated materials, look for a BRE or LPS endorsement certificate of robust fire testing of the product.
There are many accredited institutions and Trade Organisations listed on the internet and we can assist you in ensuring the commensurate professional competency and accreditation are sourced, as appropriate for your needs and that any fire-related system or equipment installed or provided, is in accordance with the approved industry codes of practice. We can also review and identify any ‘over-provision’ in submitted quotes or proposals, saving you money and; potentially, subsequent disruption to your business.
Please feel free to or use the contact form for a no-obligation advisory response.
Fire Safety Training, what do I need and where can I obtain the relevant package?
The Fire Safety Order requires the Responsible Person to provide fire safety-related training to all employees and those who resort to your premises in the course of their work, (including visitors and contractors etc.), upon induction and at regular intervals thereafter. This training must cover the actions to take in the event of a fire, where the fire alarm is, how to summon the emergency services, where any fire fighting equipment is provided and how to use it if necessary, the location of all available exits and where to assemble in a safe place. It’s also a requirement to record all training and details of the person receiving it in a formal record format.
Regular evacuation drills are an excellent method of familiarising the people in your workplace with the available exit routes and assembly areas. You should ensure this is undertaken at least annually, more frequently for high turnover of staff or seasonal hiring.
Your workplace may require Fire Wardens or other nominated persons with specific duties should a fire occur or the alarm is sounded, (checking floors are evacuated, or specialist tasks like ensuring machinery is switched off or hazardous area doors are closed etc.). They might also be nominated to attempt to tackle a fire in its early stages, (hot work operatives etc.), all these tasks require a higher level content of fire safety training and competence assessment.
Don’t forget your obligation to provide assistance to those with mobility impairments, how are you going to ensure they can negotiate stairs or doors? Do you have staff who are hard of hearing or partially sighted, again special measures may need evaluating by firstly, discussing with and involving those who have any form of disability, followed by practising the methodology in real-time scenarios.
Please contact us for more information.