Your Responsibilities
Every site should be under the care of a ‘Responsible Person’ or ‘RP’. This designated person’s responsibilities will differ from company to company but will often include the performing and documenting of weekly/monthly checks and adherence to the Fire Risk Assessment.
The Responsible Person is ultimately the person who has legal responsibility for the fire safety in a premises. It is important that all companies have an appointed Responsible Person, as they are in charge of overseeing the safety of everyone in the business. There can be more than one Responsible Person for a building; for example, in an complex where there are different businesses in the same building, there should be a Responsible Person for each separate business.
The responsible person must:
- Carry out a fire risk assessment of the premises and review it regularly
- Tell staff or their representatives about the risks you’ve identified
- Put in place, and maintain, appropriate fire safety measures
- Plan for an emergency and have an evacuation plan
- Provide staff information, fire safety instruction and training
Fire Risk Assessments
The responsible person must carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment of the premises. This will identify what is required to prevent fire and keep people safe.
They must keep a written record of the fire risk assessment if the business has 5 or more people.
They can do the fire risk assessment themselves or if they do not have the expertise or time, they need to appoint a ‘competent person’ to help, Horizon Fire can advise you on this.
Fire Extinguishers
The “responsible person” for the premises must carry out regular visual inspections of all fire extinguishers to determine whether fire extinguishers have been operated and to check for damage on a weekly basis.
Visual inspections will check that:
- Fire extinguishers are correctly located in the designated place
- Fire extinguishers are unobstructed and visible
- The operating instructions of all fire extinguishers are clean and legible and face outwards
- Fire extinguishers have not been operated and are not obviously damaged or have any missing parts
- The reading of any pressure gauges or indicators fitted to fire extinguishers are within operational and safety limits
- The seals and tamper indicators of all fire extinguishers are not broken or missing.
The responsible person will need to record the results of these visual inspections and arrange for corrective action, where necessary, by a competent person. In the event of doubt, the responsible person should arrange for a competent person to examine the fire extinguisher.
Responsible persons also have obligations under fire legislation to use a competent person to maintain fire extinguishers in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
