Hello - no these would not constitue a fire risk asessment as they are only to judge risks for attening fire personenel ona fire call. The building will still require a FRA.
Hi Fire Monkey
I agree with your comment but the information we have on fire appliances will constitute a risk assessment for fire crews under the Management of Health and Safety Regs 1999.
What i cannot get my head around is I believe that almost all fire services are breaching the 1974 HASAWA in relation to BA guidelines as:-
1. None that I know of have a safe system of work.
To have a procedure where you have Operational intelligence stating you should consider guidelines but not assess if you can use them safely would fail to be classed as a safe system of work.
Getting a BA team to assess in a fire situation if there are suitable securing points when crews have already done an O I on the premises and failed to do a suitable and sufficient assessment would also not be classed as a safe system of work.
2. None that I know have sufficient procedures for Instruction, information, training and supervision in relating to BA Guidelines.
Instructing crews to assess the suitability of guidelines in relation to securing points, during a fire situation when the O I crews did not assess this would bring the instructions into question.
Again, to have information stating to consider guidelines and not have assessed if you can use them would bring the information into question.
To have to fit tie off handles in training facilities as everyone knows you cannot use guidelines safely if they are not properly secured makes any training totally unrealistic to what you would find in premises where we would use Guidelines for real!
These two points above are where most Fire Services contravene the HASAWA and I believe the HSE would find it relatively easy to prove non-compliance in relation to almost every fire service in the UK should an incident arise at a complicated or large premises and the HSE had to carry out an investigation.
I would be grateful if anyone could add their opinion to these comments as I thought that fire services would wish to comply with legislation, especially some who have already experienced, and are still experiencing the consequences of non-compliance.