by Shane Henson — September 28, 2012—The British Standards Institution (BSI) has responded to a call from the U.K. fire industry by updating the publicly available specification PAS 79—Fire Risk Assessment: Guidance and a Recommended Methodology to ensure that anyone with responsibility for a building will take measures to reduce the risk from fire and ensure that there is a way to escape safely.
Although fire risk assessments for non-domestic premises are required by British law, unsuitable fire risk assessments are still commonplace, notes BSI, a business standards company that focuses on helping companies perform better, reduce risk and achieve sustainable growth worldwide.
PAS 79 is a well-respected document that has already made a positive contribution to enhancing fire safety and protecting and minimizing risk to the occupants of buildings, says BSI. The standard provides a structured approach to fire risk assessment and is an essential document for fire professionals, including fire risk assessors, fire safety consultants, health and safety consultants, building and property managers, FMs and consultancies providing fire risk assessments as a service.
The revised edition launched by BSI aims to do even more, as it includes:
- New guidance on the role of codes of practice and guidance documents as a basis for determining appropriate fire precautions;
- New guidance on the approach that should be adopted in determining the appropriate fire precautions for existing buildings that do confirm to current codes of practice applicable to new buildings (e.g. under current building regulations);
- A new annex that contains a competence standard for fire risk assessors, developed and agreed by stakeholders in the fire safety profession; and
- Editable PDFs of the model pro-formas for documentation of a fire risk assessment and review of an existing fire risk assessment.
- New guidance on the approach that should be adopted in determining the appropriate fire precautions for existing buildings that do confirm to current codes of practice applicable to new buildings (e.g. under current building regulations);
