Fire Safety in the Hospitality Industry.
The importance of fire safety in the hospitality industry can’t be overstated. This is because not only is the buildings at risk but also the lives of your customers and employees. In recent events, within the last year, hospitality industry in Northern Ireland has seen quite a few fires. Examples include fires that occurred at the Windrose in Carrickfergus, the Bullitt hotel and Europa hotel in Belfast. Luckily there were no fatalities but there was property damage.
For anyone operating in this sector the number one priority has to be the customers because its their main source of income. As no customers means no business and no business means no opportunity for growth. For this reason, it is vital that you keep up with fire safety standards set within the UK and Ireland. Especially with the potentially influx of guests and customers during the upcoming holiday season. The premise of this blog, is to provide an insight into some of steps you can undergo to prevent fires and therefore save lives.
Fire Safety Law
Legislation for fire safety in Northern Ireland falls under two legal instruments. Which are the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010. This law in a sense applies to practically any type of building such as a hotel, restaurants, bars and hostels.
Who’s Responsible
To put it simply the person responsible for the fire safety of the building and its customers the majority of the time is the owners or managers. There responsibility lies with the safety of those that are within the premises of the building and those who aren’t on the premises but may be affected directly by a fire.
Hotels, B&B’s, Guest Houses and Self-Catering Properties
For all premises that offer sleeping accommodation the same fire safety regulations apply. Whereby, it’s a legal requirement for a fire risk assessment to be completed. This is to ensure that if there are any fire hazards they are addressed, reduced, and removed. If there are any fire risks, you need to prepare an emergency plan and provide necessary training. These risks assessments must be completed on a regular basis by those responsible or an outsourced fire safety engineer.
The reason fire risk assessments need to be carried is to ensure that procedures for fire safety are put in place. As well as measures for fire prevention and fire precautions ensuring that every element of fire safety is working properly. This is an example of good fire safety management, which means that if everything is done proficiently and effectively. Therefore if a fire does occur it can be controlled and contained safely and quickly. For more information on risk assessments be sure to check out our specialised page on risk assessments; https://mclfire.com/mcl-fire-risk-assessment/.
Training
Fire safety training for the most part is a legal requirement but also one of the best practices an owner/manager can undertake and it involves providing its staff with the necessary fire safety training. With these training sessions fire procedures and precautions must be put in practice and emphasised. This is becuase as little as 30 mins of fire safety training could be the difference of a life saved to a life lost. For more information be sure to check out https://mclfire.com/training-2/.
Bars and Restaurants
For Bars and restaurants, in line with their fire safety regulations they also have a legal obligation to complete a fire risk assessment. This is to ensure fire hazards are identified and dealt with and to ensure the fire protection exhibited by the business is effective and working properly. The Conductor for these assessments need to have the necessary training, so that their judgements are effective and precise . However, it is recommended that an outsourced fire safety professional is brought in.
With restaurants the main fire safety law they must abide by is the Regulatory Reform Order 2005. This means that the premises conforms to the required standards and that there fire safety training provided for all employees.
Thanks for reading, if you have any queries feel free to contact us https://mclfire.com/contact/ or send an email to info@mclfire.com or call 028 9521 9361.
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