What do you need to do?
Send residents information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
Information should include:
How often?
BlockPro reminds you to circulate information to residents annually, then upload a copy to your dashboard.
What do you need to do?
The instructions must cover the following:
How often?
In blocks under 11m with two or more sets of domestic premises, the Secure Information Box is only required in blocks “which have additional complexity i.e. layout, access, floor numbering, flat numbering, firefighting facilities, fire engineering etc.”
What do you need to do?
Your secure information box must contain:
Good practice can be found on the Fire Industry Association’s website HERE
How often?
BlockPro reminds you to inspect the secure information box and ensure that its contents are up to date, then keeps a log of each inspection. Additionally, you can store copies of building plans in your dashboard.
What do you need to do?
Send residents information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
Information should include:
How often?
What do you need to do?
The instructions must cover the following:
How often?
What do you need to do?
Communal:
Check all fire doors in communal areas of the building. Typically, these doors will include:
Checks to include:
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to carry out the checks.
Flat entrance doors:
Checks to include:
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to carry out the checks.
In the case of any leasehold flats, arrangements will need to be made with the leaseholders to grant access to their flats for the purpose of flat entrance door checks. In the event of an impasse, a court order can be obtained for this purpose. It is recommended that any new leases include this right of access.
Where inspections identify the need for repair or replacement of any fire door (e.g. communal or flat entrance door), this work must be undertaken by a competent contractor as soon as reasonably practicable.
How often?
In blocks that are not classed as high-rise, the Secure Information Box is only required in the following circumstances:
What do you need to do?
Your secure information box must contain:
Good practice can be found on the Fire Industry Association’s website HERE
How often?
BlockPro reminds you to inspect the secure information box and ensure that its contents are up to date, then keeps a log of each inspection. Additionally, you can store copies of building plans in your dashboard.
For the purpose of the Regulations, a residential building is to be considered as high-rise if either of the following circumstances apply:
A mezzanine floor is to be treated as a storey if its floor area is at least 50% of the floor area of the largest storey in the building which is not below ground level.
What do you need to do?
Send residents information relating to the importance of fire doors in fire safety.
Information should include:
How often?
What do you need to do?
The instructions must cover the following:
How often?
What do you need to do?
Communal:
Check all fire doors in communal areas of the building. Typically, these doors will include:
Checks to include:
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to carry out the checks.
Flat entrance doors:
Checks to include:
It is not intended that these checks should involve any more detailed, technical examination of the doors, or of the original standard of installation, nor is it intended that these checks need to be carried out by specialists. It is expected that the Responsible Person, or their staff, should, with simple instruction, be able to carry out the checks.
In the case of any leasehold flats, arrangements will need to be made with the leaseholders to grant access to their flats for the purpose of flat entrance door checks. In the event of an impasse, a court order can be obtained for this purpose. It is recommended that any new leases include this right of access.
Where inspections identify the need for repair or replacement of any fire door (e.g. communal or flat entrance door), this work must be undertaken by a competent contractor as soon as reasonably practicable.
How often?
What do you need to do?
Your secure information box must contain:
Good practice can be found on the Fire Industry Association’s website HERE
How often?
BlockPro reminds you to inspect the secure information box and ensure that its contents are up to date and keeps a log of each inspection. Additionally, you can store copies of building plans in your dashboard.
What do you have to do?
Floor plans:
The floor plans must identify the location of all lifts (identifying any designed for use by firefighters or for evacuation) and key fire-fighting equipment in the building including rising mains, smoke control systems and fire suppression systems.
If the plans for each floor would be the same in all material respects, you can prepare just one single plan for those floors, provided the plan clearly indicates the floors to which it relates.
Single-page building plan:
Must shows the following:
How often?
BlockPro allows you to store copies of building and floor plans in your dashboard.
What do you need to do?
You must:
Other than in blocks of flats with external walls of traditional masonry construction, unless the above information is readily available and known to be reasonably accurate, determining the information required by the Fire Safety (England) Regulations will normally require special skills, not normally held by a typical fire risk assessor engaged to carry out the fire risk assessment required by the Fire Safety Order. Where necessary, you must seek the advice and assistance of someone with sufficient training and experience/knowledge. You will, however, remain responsible for compliance with the Regulations.
In the case of external wall construction that is known to be of traditional masonry construction, it might be reasonable to assume that the risk of external fire spread is acceptable without further investigation, in which case this should be recorded within the record provided to the fire and rescue service. However, even in the case of low- risk, traditional masonry construction, if there are attachments (such as balconies or decorative cladding) that, because of their combustibility, might result in rapid external fire spread, further appraisal by a specialist is likely to be necessary.
The purpose of providing this information to the fire and rescue service is to assist them with operational pre-planning and to provide information that will be of value to front line crews at the time of a fire.
Accordingly, the information should be presented in a form, and be restricted to high-level detail, that is of practical value for this purpose; over-elaborate detail of construction, without any explanation of the implications in respect of fire performance and risk, may not be of practical value.
On the other hand, it is unlikely that simple identification of materials used in the external walls, whether combustible or not, will always help the fire and rescue service.
Typically, other than in the case of low-risk, traditional masonry construction, the information that should be provided will comprise the following:
A code of practice for fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding is published by the British Standards Institution as PAS 9980 here.
A suitable template for recording the information to be provided electronically to the fire and rescue service is HERE.
How often?
BlockPro allows you to store external wall survey reports in your dashboard, log any remedials, plus a reminder to have them re-surveyed where necessary (default frequency: every five years)
What do you need to do?
You must also undertake monthly checks of the following:
Responsible persons should consider the impact of the fault (e.g. the impact of smoke control system failure on means of escape) and the need for any consequent mitigation measures. Responsible persons should also consider the need to review the fire risk assessment for the building, particularly in the case of faults that will be of a prolonged nature. Consideration should also be given to any potential impact on evacuation arrangements (e.g. in the event of failure of an evacuation lift). The need for continued compliance with duties under the Fire Safety Order should be taken into account.
It is not envisaged that any of the above checks will need to be carried out by specialists or contractors (though some Responsible Persons may choose to have the checks carried out by maintenance contractors that carry out other routine maintenance checks on a monthly, or more frequent, basis). The checks required generally involve only visual inspection or simple functional operating checks.
However, the routine checks must confirm that the system or equipment is in efficient working order and in good repair, based on guidance for routine checks provided by the relevant industry standard or any recommendations made by the manufacturers of equipment within an operators’ manual.
How often?
Monthly.
BlockPro reminds you to carry out monthly checks on applicable items, log remedials (if any), plus an optional portal for residents to log in remotely to view fire safety records, useful documents and more.
What do you need to do?
The principles that apply to this signage are as follows:
For size of the lettering, the typeface to be used, the mounting height and suitable wording, see guidance HERE.
How often?
The guidance is not explicit, but notes “You must make sure that the signs are maintained in good condition, so it is important that you check them regularly (e.g. during other legally required checks within the building).”
BlockPro reminds you to periodically check the condition of wayfinding signage. You can adjust the frequency as desired.
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