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6
NEWS
FROM
THE
INDUSTRY
One of
the ongoing
changes
to
the
national
fire
safety
scene
in
recent
times
has
been
the
exercise
to
radically
reform
the
provision of
fire
safety
in
England
and Wales. This
is
now
embraced
in
the
implications of
the Regulatory Reform
(Fire
Safety) Order 2005, which will
come
into
effect
this
year on
a
date
to
be
announced
shortly.
The Regulatory Reform
(Fire
Safety) Order 2005
(RRFSO 2005) will
have
a
far-reaching
impact
and
particularly
so on
the
enforcement processes
that
will be
employed
in
future.
It
is
intended
to
simplify
the
enforcement
and
regulation of
fire
safety
and
to
shift
the
emphasis
from
an
“enforcer’s
tell
you”
regime,
to
a
“you decide
the
appropriate measures
and manage
them”
system.
Naturally,
the
enforcement will
still devolve
to
the
Fire & Rescue
Service
and
a
handful of other
agencies,
including
the HSE
and
local
authorities.
The
new Order
repeals
a
raft of previous
fire
safety
legislation. The powers of
inspectors
and
the powers
to make
requirements
and prohibit
the
use of part or
all of
a building
are
all
transferred
to
the RRFSO 2005. However,
the
key
element
is
that
the
requirement
for
a
fire
certificate
for
specific
uses of premises
is
gone.
When
the
new Order
comes
into
force,
every
workplace will
fall
under
the
new
regime, one
which places
the onus
upon
the occupier, or
the
person who
has
the
control of
the premises,
to
ensure
that
the
arrangements
for
fire
safety
are
suitable
and
sufficient
to
the
risk presented.
Inspectors
have power
to
inspect
and, where
In
essence,
this
change moves
the
responsibility
necessary,
to
insist on
improvements, or
in
for
safety
in
the
event of
fire
away
from
the
Fire
extreme
cases
to prosecute. Naturally, where
& Rescue
Service
inspector who, perhaps,
issued
there
has been
a
failure
to
implement
the
fire
certificate
to
the owner of
the premises.
appropriate measures, or
to maintain
them,
and
Ownership of
the
fire
safety
solution passes
to
someone
is
injured or dies
in
the
resulting
fire,
the occupier
and
their workforce.
the mechanism
is
there
for
the
responsible
person
to be prosecuted.
(In
the
preparation
of
this
brief
article,
the Editor
acknowledges
the
help
of Company
Freeman
Patrick
Cox,
Senior Tutor
(Uniformed)
at
the
Fire
Service
College, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire).
West Yorkshire
firefighters
endure
some
very
high
levels of
radiated
heat
as
they
get
hose
lines
to work
in
this
graphic
image of
a major
fire
in 2005
at
a
large woodyard. The
ferocity of
uncontrolled
and
rapid
fire
spread
is dramatically
captured
in
this photograph
taken by Brian
Saville of West Yorkshire
Fire & Rescue
Service
to whom
Salamander
is
indebted.