Fire Safety Guidance for Care Homes
The National Association for Safety and Health in Care Services
(NASHiCS) and the Chief Fire Officers' Association (CFOA) have
developed additional guidance for operators of residential care
premises.
The additional guidance has been produced to accompany the
Communities and Local Government (CLG) Guide, Fire Safety Risk
Assessment - Residential Care Premises. The CLG Guide was produced
in order to provide guidance regarding compliance with the
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO).
The two bodies identified some specific issues in the CLG Guide
that seem to require some additional guidance in order to ensure
full understanding by all concerned.
The document sets out this additional guidance and covers the
following issues,
Evacuation of a protected zone in 2.5 minutes.
- Rooms of residents unable to evacuate – upgrading to 60 minutes
fire resistance.
- Staff remaining with residents who are unable to evacuate.
- The use of external fire escapes by residents.
- The travel distance of evacuation routes.
- The use of by-pass routes.
Underlying principles set out in the guidance are that,
- The safety of premises occupants is paramount.
- Staff training as regards awareness and reduction of the risk
of fire and in evacuation strategies and techniques is vital.
The risk of fire cannot be completely eliminated so measures
must be in place to reduce the risk to as low as is reasonably
practicable. It is important that there should be sufficient levels
of staff to effect the fire safety strategy for that premises. The
fire safety strategy should always take account of the ability of
the building to withstand the spread of fire and smoke travel.
You can download the document at http://www.nashics.org/documents