Rural fire safety

Answer: New fire safety legislation known as the Fire Safety Order (2005) came into force in October 2006. This law places responsibility for fire safety on the owner of a premises. Each property is individual and therefore fire safety measures should be tailored to your particular needs.

Fire safety law is very powerful and designed to protect lives. You are responsible for the safety of everybody who works, visits or has cause to be on your property. Not complying with the Fire Safety law may lead to prosecution.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service is committed to making communities safer. The Rural Safety Team come from agricultural backgrounds and have worked in agricultural industries. This grounding ensures that we are able to give good advice based on many years experience.

This information has been written because most people in agriculture will have never experienced fire safety measures and will be unfamiliar with what is expected. It will outline some of the most common causes of fires and some of the hazards that firefighters face which may prevent them from doing the very best for you if a fire occurs. It will explain how to reduce the chance of a fire starting and how to protect your property and livestock from being lost if a fire does occur.

Small businesses may only have to implement a few things to protect themselves and it will not be a major task. Larger businesses may need to have greater measures in place and may need professional help to achieve this. Where to find this information and who to ask for help will be explained. The most important thing is to be aware of fire and how devastating a force it can be so that you are carrying out your normal activities with fire safety in mind.

Question: What is risk assessment?

Answer: Every time you walk across a road you make a decision as to whether it is safe to cross in front of an oncoming vehicle or wait a few seconds until the road is clear to reduce the chance of being knocked down. If you were on your own you may decide that you could cross easily, but what if you were responsible for crossing 50 dairy cows on a fast  road, would you be so confident that you could make it without there being an accident?

By thinking about this you will have now determined the level of risk, whether there is a small chance of being hit or a high potential for injury on both sides! This is based on your judgment of the speed of the vehicles, type of road layout, how fast you can manoeuvre the cows across the road and what the damage would be if the vehicle were to hit any of you!

So, if the risk of collision is very low, you may decide to carry on as normal. But what if there is a good chance of somebody colliding with you? Well then, you need to reduce the chance of collision, so think about what could be done to make the crossing safer.

On a small private lane you could put speed humps to slow down the traffic. You might put a sign up to warn motorists or if that still didn’t slow them down you might ask the Highways Dept to erect crossing lights that would stop the traffic.

This might require telling the stockman how to operate the lights and what to do if say, it was a wet morning with poor visibility. You may have somebody on the road before the cows to warn motorists. He/She could be protected and seen by wearing a reflective jacket.

These things are all known as control measures and are designed to lessen the risk of an accident. Some may be expensive physical measures like lights or you may only need some very cheap and simple techniques, it’s all based on the level of danger and what is appropriate for the situation.

You need to keep monitoring the danger and maybe change the control measures. What if cars became faster or you wanted to bring the cows from another field with a different crossing point or it’s a foggy morning? How has the risk changed and do you need to adapt your ways to react to that change?

All sounds like common sense? Well that is all a risk assessment is and we hope to assist you to reduce the risks to your farm that you might not already be aware of.

Question: How do we complete a risk assessment?

Answer: Much of life these days is affected by a term known as Risk Assessment. Fire Safety is no different. Many people ask, “What is risk assessment?” Well, it’s what we do every day to stay safe, perhaps without knowing we are doing it. Many of you will be familiar with the term “Common Sense”. We now have a process to calculate “Common Sense” its called risk assessment!

There are five steps to follow

1. Identify fire hazards - look around at your buildings, equipment and methods and think about everything that might potentially start a fire. Write down where each potential fire risk is located.
2. Identify people at risk - think about all the people who work at or visit the property for whatever reason and even people outside of your property boundary who might be affected by a fire. (Neighbours, other businesses roads, railways etc.)
3. Reduce the danger by removing the hazard or controlling the risk - now decide what you can do to reduce the likelihood of a fire starting and also how to minimise the damage if one does start.
4. Record, plan, inform and train - you need to keep on assessing the risk, have a plan in place in case of fire and ensure everyone can escape from a fire. Tell everyone what the fire plan is. Make sure that staff know what to do and tell members of the public who might never have been to your property before. Practice evacuation drills both in daylight and darkness.
5. Review - always think about the risk of fire daily but set aside time once a year to review the fire risk assessment and fire plan to see if anything has changed or if there is anything you could be doing better.

Question: Does everyone need to do this?

Answer: Everyone must carry out a fire risk assessment. The only exception is for your own private home which is not covered by the Fire Safety Order. (Also, see staff accommodation).

Question: Does my fire risk assessment need to be written down?

Answer: By law you need a written risk assessment in the following circumstances:

• If you have five or more employees (paid or unpaid, full-time or part-time )
• Where you have young people under 18 working for you or using your facilities
• If your property is licensed, ie you sell alcohol

However it is always good practice to write down your findings as it will assist you or someone else who has to look at the risks another time.

Question: Can I carry out my own fire risk assessment?

Answer: Yes you can, if you have the confidence to carry one out. No one knows your property and what goes on there like you do. However if you do not feel confident in your abilities to do the risk assessment then you can ask a consultant to do it for you.

Question: Who can I go to for help with my fire risk assessment?

Answer: There are professional fire safety consultants who can assist you by doing your risk assessment for you. You will find them in the Yellow Pages. Also contact your local NFU who carry out fire safety risk assessments or may recommend someone. The consultant will fill out all the relevant paperwork and explain where you can make improvements to your fire safety