Fire protection for licensed premises

The Licensing Act (2003), which comes in to full effect on 24 November 2005, will see licences issued by local authorities instead of magistrates. The new Act, which replaces archaic laws dating back to the First World War, will affect every business or club that sells hot food after 11.00pm, serves alcohol or puts on public entertainment, and every such business must convert its licence, even if there is to be no change in its opening hours. Any pub, restaurant, kebab shop, sports club, theatre, music venue or cinema that does not have a new licence on 24th November will face prosecution if they continue to trade.

The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority has primary responsibility for the Public Safety objective of applications for Premises Licenses and Certificates in the London areas.

The fire authority has indicated that, when considering applications, they will base their evaluation on the fire risk assessment of the premises.

A fire risk assessment may at first sight appear to be to daunting a task but, with careful consideration, it can be completed by the lay-person.

Where applicants have difficulty in completing this risk assessment, Surefire can help.

Alternatively, their local Fire Authority may well be prepared to offer further advice and may even insist on additional fire precautions resulting from a visit to the premises.

For fire to occur there must be a source of ignition, fuel and oxygen.

If all three are present and in close proximity in the workplace, then the fire risk could increase as a result.

Potential sources of ignition could include naked flames such as matches, pilot flames, gas/oil heaters, cookers, etc., or just hot surfaces such as black heaters, boilers, machinery, lighting and other electrical equipment.

If there is a fire, the greatest danger is the spread of the fire, heat and smoke throughout the workplace.

If this happens, the main risk to people is from the smoke and products of combustion, which can very quickly incapacitate those escaping.

If a workplace does not have adequate means of escape or if a fire can grow to an appreciable size before it is noticed, then people may become trapped or overcome by heat and smoke before they can evacuate.

Certain control measures may be required to reduce the possibility of ignition, minimise the potential fuel load in the workplace, or assist persons to escape from the effects of a fire, should it occur.

These may fall into a number of different categories, including fire safety management systems, means of escape, staff training, fire warning systems and, of course, means of fighting fire.

Different control measures can be applied to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.

For example, if the risk is the possibility of a fast growing fire, potential control measures could include removing all possible ignition sources, moving the hazard to an area that affects the minimum of persons, eg outside the premises, providing an additional protected exit route to speed the escape of the occupants, providing a fire detection and alarm system to warn persons of the fire in its early stages or providing appropriate fire fighting equipment such as a fixed extinguishing system.

This last measure is one of the easiest and most effective controls that can be installed and Scotch Mist offers a quick and efficient solution where other measures are impracticable or financially unviable.

For instance, the Local Fire Officer visited one restaurant located within the London area and, upon inspection, deemed that the Kitchen occupied an area classified as an escape route.

The Fire Officer insisted that some form of Suppression System be installed in this area before the Premise Licence could be granted.

The Owner of the restaurant contacted Surefire Systems via the Scotch Mist web site (www.scotchmist.uk.com) and, following a survey by Surefire, accepted their quotation for the supply, installation and ongoing maintenance of a Scotch Mist suppression system within the risk area of the premises.

This was an acceptable solution to the Fire Officer, who gave his approval to the Scotch Mist proposals, and the system was duly installed.

Since then, the restaurant's insurers have reduced the Restaurant's Insurance Premium by approx 30% because of the additional protection that the Scotch Mist system provides to the premises as a whole.

This equates to a return of capital cost within 2 or 3 years, which, as anyone running a business will know, is an extremely worthwhile investment.

The Restaurant owner is delighted, not only with the savings made, but by the fact the Scotch Mist installation is unobtrusive and offers his staff and his clientele a more responsible level of protection than before.