No fire risk assessment will be suitable and sufficient if the person compiling it is not competent.
But thats the problem PhilB - many people dont know how a fire will develop or how the building will react.
We're pushing the risk assessment message nationwide, saying its now down to the RP but often they arent competent, and dont know where to get good training.
I did colin todds risk assessment coure - it was very good, but it didnt tell me how a fire would develop in the way that you descirbe, I did a fire service college risk assessment course, that too was good that didnt tell me how a fire would develop in the way you are talking about either.
Its only the years experience I have had as an operational firefighter that gave me the basis of understanding the dynamics of fire, and even then I still wouldnt claim to be an expert.
So who is an expert? Fire Research Scientists? Senior Fire Officers? A fire risk assessor? Inspecting officers?
Are we saying that all fire risk assessors / consultants / RPs and IO's should have degrees in fire engineering or fire safety? (im not being sarcastic Im genuinely asking the question) bearing in mind an RP will probably apprach a consultant who might not have those qualifications to assist them.
Personally I place more importance on understanding fire precautions and what they do. The fact someone has identified a hazard and the risk it poses is a good start, also listing the existing and required precautions to minimise that risk is also good and we shouldnt knock it.
If i go into your offices now PhilB ill have a general appreciation of how a fire might develop (simple office environment, electrics, paper, etc etc).
If I go to Joe Bloggs furniture Polish factory who use weird and wonderful chemicals, and materials I will have less of an appreciation of what might occur. Is it explosive? is it highly flammable? will explode in a fireball and the quickly burn out? will the material support a prolonged steady growth pattern?
The fact is we cant know every last detail about how every single material will react in fire.
What we can have though is an in depth knowledge of is the basic principles of fire, coupled to a sound knowledge of how fire precautions work.
To me if you have to worry about structural integrity for life safety purposes then there is something very wrong with the building!
If the building wont hold up in the time it takes to evacuate then its alarm bells time. For me you should be competent to know when your skills render you incompetent.
The true answer is that everyone has a different idea of what a risk assessment should be. Ideas vary from consutlant to consultant , from assessor to assesor, inspecting officer to inspecting officer and its back to that oild shiney chesnut of that unless you have prescription you will never have consistency.