Fire Risk Assessments

Fire Risk Assessment Services

Green Hat Consulting has a dedicated department providing a complete Fire Risk Management service, fully compliant with the Articles of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England & Wales.

Green Hat Consulting are members of the Fire Protection Association.

Our Assessors have vast experience, knowledge and skill in the field, and work closely with clients, Fire Services and the Health and Safety Executive to ensure compliance and the avoidance of enforcement action.

Our Services

Fire Safety Consultancy

Fire Safety Strategy

Fire Safety Management & Policy

Fire Safety Gap Analysis

Fire Safety investigations

Premises Fire Risk Assessments

Construction Site Fire Risk Assessments

Timber Frame Fire Risk Assessments

Specialist Fire Risk Assessments

Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmosphere Regulations (DSEAR)

External Cladding Assessments

Management of risks advice

Expert Witness Services

Fire Investigation

Our services in more detail:

Fire Safety Consultancy

Fire Safety Strategy

Green Hat Consulting provide fire support and consultancy services through the various RIBA Stages of design and construction through to handover and maintenance. Reports are intended for submission when requested by the Regulatory Enforcing Authorities to meet the requirements of all parts of Building Regulations Approved Document ‘B’ through the provision of:

Fire Engineering Support through the RIBA Stages
Fire System Design Plan Reviews, including Suppression, Fire Alarms, and Emergency Lighting, lightning protection etc.

Value Engineering (Creating Opportunities to Reduce Costs) through the development of fire strategies, typically RIBA stages 1 – 4, inclusive of peer review, risk mitigation, impact assessment, design development and cost analysis with reporting and exchange support.
Development of fire strategies, RIBA stages 5 – 7, including site inspections, commissioning, handover and pre/post occupancy support.
Fire Safety Management & Policy
As a bespoke service to our clients, we provide suitable and sufficient; management policies, emergency plans, fire-fighting arrangements, evacuation strategies and training requirements for organisations. The Emergency Plan is based on the outcome of a Fire Risk Assessment or result of a Gap Analysis and must be made available to all employees and the enforcing authorities.
Fire Safety Gap Analysis
In the management of fire safety and to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, a gap analysis will compare the actual performance with potential or desired performance. The survey and report will identify areas that can be improved. The analysis involves determining, documenting, and identifying the difference between existing fire safety provisions and compliance/enforcement requirements.

Fire Risk Assessments

Premises Fire Risk Assessments

It is a legal requirement for every workplace to have a Fire Risk Assessment, while those employing five or more persons will have to be able to produce a formalised written Fire Risk Assessment meeting the requirements of the fire safety management strategies detailed in British Standards.

A Fire Risk Assessment should be undertaken annually and assesses the fire risks, the protective and preventative measures and processes/procedures within premises against current standards criteria. An assessment identifies necessary controlling measures to remove or reduce risk to a tolerable level and will produce an action plan for compliance.

A Fire Risk Assessment must be carried out if:

You are an employer, even if you have one employee
You are a landlord or managing agent in control of a building
You are responsible for managing the common-access areas of a block of flats, maisonettes or HMO (house in multiple occupation)

Construction Site Fire Risk Assessments

We act as or for the ‘Responsible Person’ in order to carry out, and keep up to date, a risk assessment and implement appropriate measures to minimise the risk to life and property from fire during the construction process. We also advise on the following;

Ignition sources, security and fire spread
Means of escape
Means of giving warning
Means of fighting fire

Timber Frame Fire Risk Assessments

Off-site fire risk assessments and fire spread calculations are required to ensure the appropriate classification of timber material is constructed for walls, floors and roof of timber buildings. Our reports work with the structural Timber Association ’16 steps’ guidance and also comply to the requirements of CDM 2015 and The Fire Safety Order.

Our services seek to work with clients for cost effective solutions using off-site strategic reports and on-site reviews and risk assessments during the project.

Specialist Fire Risk Assessments

On-Site Fire Safety management plans procedures and checks

Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmosphere Regulations (DSEAR)

The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations sets minimum requirements for the protection of workers from fire and explosion risks related to dangerous substances and potentially explosive atmospheres in the workplace. DSEAR is the ‘framework’ adopted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to facilitate compliance to ATEX 137 within the UK.

It is the responsibility of the employer to minimise the risks to their employees that can result from potentially explosive atmospheres (i.e. where there is presence of gases, vapours, liquids or dusts). Our team can conduct risk assessments and identify planning, procedural and training requirements for clients.

External Cladding Assessments

Services to protect the people working and living in cladded buildings, and meet all UK legal requirements, we conduct reposts to establish the right advice including;

Identification of the external cladding on all buildings
Review of external cladding specification
Sampling of materials
Written report detailing presence and extent of combustible aluminium composite panelling
Carrying out checks on firestopping installations
Collection of available data to inform any future detailed investigations of compliance or risk

Fire Safety Investigations

Expert Witness Services

In the event of a dispute relating to fire safety, it may become necessary to seek advice from an independent and impartial expert witness.

We act independently or as part of a specialist team, we assist in determining the origin and cause of a fire, able to assess evidence and provide expert opinion in either civil or criminal court.

Fire Investigation

Our Fire Investigations reflect the facts without distortion; using legally recognised methodology to report on all available data following accurate analysis and, most importantly for our clients, without bias. We ensure clients are correctly informed of where the fire started (the origin) and how the fire started, being the ignition source, the first material ignited and the mechanism that brought the two components together (the cause).