Fire Safety in Church

[Guest]

Has any one carried out a fire risk assessment of a church ?

If so i would be interested in comments regarding use of candles etc, public access to towers with only one narrow unprotected means of escape, fire alarms, emergency lighting, training etc. Also not only carrying out the assessment but have any of the recommendations been carried out, liasion with fire service, listed building etc?

If not, does anyone know where I could find some info.

Look forward to hearing from anyone, many thanks.

[Chris Houston]

At risk of sounding sarcastic - have you tried contacting the Church of England?  One would expect they have done a few.

[Guest]

At risk of sounding sarcastic - have you tried contacting the Church of England?  One would expect they have done a few.

You are right, you do sound a little sarcastic, may be I will contact them if yours is the only response I get.

Thanks for sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge, whilst responding do you have a contact at the Church of England head office ?

[BCM]

At the risk of sounding realistic, what's the life risk?

[Chris Houston]

At risk of sounding sarcastic - have you tried contacting the Church of England?  One would expect they have done a few.

You are right, you do sound a little sarcastic, may be I will contact them if yours is the only response I get.

Thanks for sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge, whilst responding do you have a contact at the Church of England head office ?

Nope.  

[Guest]

BCMurphy - I would have thought the risk to life was obvious? I am sorry i have not made it a simple request for info but if you had say 15 members of the public at the top of a tower with only one escape route and a fire started the ground floor, how would you get the people out ? My question is to professionals that have carried out assessments what have they done, restricted use, carried out upgrading and other contol measures etc.
 
At the risk of sounding ..........
 

[BCM]

Guest, I share everyones concerns regarding fire safety, I work in the healthcare sector, our life risk is very high and we have fire risk assessed everything in sight.  I was an operational firefighter for 28 years in various spheres including Met brigades and smaller, I have inspected and granted licenses to fire services all over, so I know a bit about fire risk assessment.  My problem with your question is that you are confusing fantastic probabilities with realistic possibilities, simple risk management solutions will sort out your problems, if people are in the tower and there's nobody in the main body of the church then the management of the church are in breach of Management Regulations, Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regs and loads of other stuff including H&S Act, but thats over 30 years old now and probably doesn't count(!).  Ever heard of Building Regs and travel distances, what about compartments and dead end situations et al. Papal immunity is no defence in court as far as I am aware, but I'm willing to be correted on that.

[Guest]

"Ever heard of Building Regs and travel distances, what about compartments and dead end situations""I have inspected and granted licenses to fire services all over",
BC Murphy - What vast experience you have, not that i  am interested with that, other than what licences you issued to fire services all over.
If you are in the real world, building regs, compartments and deadends, in a church !, come on who are you kidding, and yet again you have not assessed a church which is what my original question refers too.

Thanks for your comments anyway.

[Peter Wilkinson]

English Heritage produces an advisory note entitled 'Evacuation of visitors from cathedrals in the event of fire' (leaflet 4) which, I would suggest, is a reasonable starting point for developing a fire risk assessment procedure for churches.

[wee brian]

It never ceases to amaze me how many different fire safety publications there are. Am I alone in thinking there ought to be some co-ordination?

[Ken Taylor]

My understanding is that the major denominations have issued guidance on this to their member churches. Risk assessment is, of course, a management duty and I have not found myself in that role with regard to churches. Where there is employment, they will come under the whole raft of health and safety at work legislation and subject to inspection and enforcement in that respect. Environmental Health Officers may have some experience in this respect and you could also try asking your question in that direction. I hope that separation of lighted candles from combustibles and provision of portable extinguishers feature in their risk assesments as well as fire plans - whilst travel distances, dead-ends and single stairway conditions are likely to not be in accordance with current standards and will need particular attention. I agree that it would be interesting to hear from someone who has checked fire risk assessments from churches and wonder to what extent this has taken place.

[Guest]

Many thanks for your helpful comments so far.

[Guest]

I agree firmly with "guest" on what he said all the way through this topic!

he posted a simple enough question and has received some very snidey remarks back. :!:

We are all here to help each other some of us are more experienced in this field than others - lets help one another rather than trying to sound smug, smart and enigmatic!

God you watch there will be a sarcy reply to this comment soon enough.
 :?

[Guest]

Looking at the legalities first, if there is no one employed to work and at work the Workplace regulations dont apply. Neither does the Fire Precautions act.
However, the duty of care is ever present whichmeans that a risk assessment should be carried out not only for fire but for other areas as well.
I agree with the posters comments about travel distances etc as the vast majority of these types of building are existing, therefore the building regs dont apply either.
In terms of risk assessment, i would suggest that the risk is fairly low generally, notwithstanding arson of course, and consequently the response to the problem may be lower than that expected for other user groups. In general, fire loading is not high and therefore spread will not be rapid.
The poster was treated rather harshly I think!

[Guest]

I thought Clerics received a salary.
So workplace regs would apply.