A new survey has revealed that over 60% of people responsible for fire safety of their property believe they could be doing more to ensure the building is fire safe.
JLA’s 2021 Fire Safety Accountability Report shows that 10% of respondents do not know how to perform a fire risk assessment, despite being responsible for the job.
The same percentage of respondents also admit to having no knowledge of the new fire safety bill, while the remaining admit to having little knowledge of it.
Anticipated to come into effect next month, the new bill amends the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which represents the biggest change in building safety for a generation, aiming to provide clarity over all the fire safety risks that respective building owners and managers are responsible for assessing, such as cladding, internal/external walls and fire doors.
The survey, of over 500 respondents from those who are responsible for ensuring their building/workplace is a fire safe environment also reveals that 13.5% of respondents think it should be ‘doing more’ in terms of ensuring their respective property is fire safe.
The main reasons for respondents not ‘doing more’ to ensure their respective building is fire safe is also due to a lack of budget (18%), added stress (18%) and lack of time (15%).
Almost half (49%) of respondents also admitted that they do not train all staff on fire safety, while 12% do not offer any form of fire safety training to employees at all.
Surprisingly, almost a fifth of respondents also admit to turning to social media for fire safety guidance
Rob Harris, Managing Director of JLA Fire comments on the findings: “While it’s enlightening to see that some demographics have a satisfactory awareness of reducing fire risk, it is concerning that a large proportion of those surveyed are unaware of fire safety procedures, and believe they could be doing more to protect those around them.
“Budget constraints or added stress – or indeed the Coronavirus crisis – are not adequate reasons to avoid rectifying this awareness, as the potential damage a fire could cause would have far more costly implications on a business’ reputation and finances.
“By identifying the gaps in people’s knowledge and fire safety procedures, we know the areas that need significant improvement and we urge employers and fire safety employees to conduct widespread training, equipment checks and procedural updates as a priority.
To see the full results of the study, view JLA’s 2021 Fire Safety Accountability Report here: https://jla.com/knowledge/fsar-2021
