Balancing Means of Escape and Security | Pt 2 - Risk Assessment

When attempting to balance means of escape issues with the security of your building, various factors should be examined in some detail. This blog series began last week, looking at the cost of criminal damage, arson and burglary compared to the risk of securing your premises at the expense of fire safety. We continue by examining effective Risk Assessment strategies in relation to security and fire safety.

Fire and Security Risk Assessment is not a new concept; it is merely a practical and methodical approach to identifying problems and providing solutions. In this context, its primary purpose is to:

• Identify actual risks
• Identify hazards
• Establish risk of hazards being realised
• Evaluate existing safety/security measures
• Evaluate compensatory features which may reduce the risk to an acceptable level

Once the risk assessment is complete, it is possible to identify the most effective strategy and implement the one that will provide the optimum level of protection without causing conflict between fire and security issues.

Only by fully understanding what it is they want to prevent, can a manager select the most suitable strategy.

There are a variety of security methods that a manager can adopt to ensure property protection. These may include both physical and electronic forms of security such as:

• Panic latches
• Door alarms
• CCTV
• Intruder alarms
• Magnetic door locks (which release when the fire alarm system is activated)
• Door fasteners which are easy to open by those escaping in a fire related emergency

Even taking into account the wide array of security features at your disposal, no amount of measures will totally eliminate the risk of criminal attack. What it will do, however, is make the intruder’s task of entering the building more difficult, time consuming and noisy.

Generally speaking, most criminal attacks to your building will take place outside of working hours, however many organisations are faced with numerous security problems during normal working hours. These security risks can include contractors, delivery personnel and occasionally, walk-in thieves. It is very unlikely that each caller will be known by sight, therefore it is prudent that all such callers should be subject to some form of scrutiny, for example, requiring all personnel to register at a main reporting desk manned by permanent staff.

Your Security Risk Assessment should identify all actual and potential risks and seek to address them before they can occur. Your Fire Risk Assessment must do the same, and Complete Fire Safety Management can walk you through each step required to produce an effective Fire Risk Assessment Report.

If you would prefer a professionally undertaken Fire Risk Assessment, in addition to the online service offered by CFSM, please contact Peter Gyere on 020 8668 8663.

The Complete Fire Safety Management Platform - Our aim, at CFSM, is to make the process of becoming fire-safe straight forward, and to use our expertise in fire risk assessment and fire safety management to guide you through each necessary step, resulting in your premises meeting all legal, insurance and ethical fire safety considerations. The Complete Fire Safety Management platform is part of Lawrence Webster Forrest Limited, one of the UK's longest established Fire Engineering and Fire Risk Management Consultancies.