Commercial fire protection.

What a commercial building actually needs

Fire protection in a commercial building is not one product. It is a fire risk assessment that decides what is needed, a set of systems that deliver it, and a maintenance record that proves it is still working. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts all of that on the Responsible Person — usually the employer, or whoever controls the premises.

Most sites we take on are not non-compliant because someone decided to cut corners. They are non-compliant because an alarm service slipped by four months, a fire door was replaced during a refit by a joiner who did not know it was a fire door, or the emergency lighting has never had its annual discharge test because nobody knew it needed one.

The six things we look at first

On a first visit we establish what exists, what condition it is in, and what is missing. These are where the gaps usually are:

Keeping it in date

Each of those systems has its own interval, and they do not line up: alarms at least six-monthly with every device tested across the year, emergency lighting monthly and annually, extinguishers annually, fire doors quarterly where Regulation 10 applies. A maintenance contract exists to stop that becoming your diary problem — one schedule, one renewal calendar, and the certificate on file before the next inspection asks for it.

If you would rather keep your existing providers, that is fine — but somebody should be tracking what is due when. More sites fail on a lapsed service than on a bad one.

Standards we work to

Frequently asked