Ian Minter Architects is accredited to carry out Fire Risk Assessments for Business Premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, and provide general fire safety advice.
As Architects we have to fully understand and apply the principles of fire containment, detection, and escape in all our design work. Accredited by NEBOSH and trained at the National Fire Service College in Gloucester, we are uniquely placed to provide independent, advice on fire risk.
Fire Risk Assessors often come from a fire-related background – as a service bolted-onto a contract with an installer/maintainer of fire-fighting or detection equipment, or perhaps provided by a retired fire-fighter – but such Assessments can be too fire-focussed, often to the exclusion of other demands on the resources of the organisation being assessed.
Whilst we will always put fire safety first, there is often a balance to be struck, and we try to recommend in our Assessments only improvements that are strictly necessary, and which it is reasonable to expect the client to make.
We also offer a user-friendly short talk for clients’ staff on the principles of fire containment, showing clearly how quickly a fire can develop, and in particular, why it is essential not to prop-open fire resisting doors – one of the most common but potentially lethal irregularities Fire Risk Assessors find themselves recording.
