Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
52
Protection against specifi ed hazards
Under PUWER, employers are required to implement 
suitable controls for specifi c risks including the risk of 
fi re or overheating of the work equipment, e.g. excessive 
heat building up as a result of insuffi cient lubrication of a 
moving part.
➤
Protect all persons at risk
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Prevent accidental or unintentional reconnection.
In order to isolate work equipment that is involved in a 
fi re the control must be capable of being isolated outside 
the potential fi re danger zone. For example, the emer-
gency isolation for kitchen equipment, such as deep fat 
fryers, ovens, etc., should be located in such a position 
as to enable safe isolation during evacuation.
A permit to work system should be used to support 
isolation procedures for high-risk work equipment (see 
Chapter 6).
3.8
Hazardous substances
Managing hazardous substances in the workplace is an 
important aspect of achieving a reasonable level of fi re 
safety as overprovision or a lack of management of fl am-
mable or reactive chemicals will impact upon the level of 
fi re risk. The supply and use of hazardous substances 
used at work are covered by a number of regulations. 
The most fundamental in terms of the supply chain is the 
Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) 
Regulations 2002 (CHIP). These regulations require the 
suppliers of any substances to identify the hazards asso-
ciated with the substances they are supplying and classify 
them by hazard type. They must then label the package 
containing the substance (Appendix 3.1 shows an 
example of a label required by CHIP) and provide informa-
tion relating to the hazards to those that they supply the 
chemicals to and to package them safely including:
1. The name of the substance or preparation
2. Its chemical composition as regards hazards contents
3. Hazard classifi cations it holds, e.g. toxic, corrosive, 
etc.
The ACoP relating to PUWER specifi cally 
identifi es examples of hazards that the regu-
lations cover. The ACoP provides an example 
of a risk of overheating or fi re due to: ‘Friction 
(bearing running hot, conveyor belt on 
jammed roller), electric motors burning out, 
thermostat failure, cooling system failure. ’
A fi re risk assessment should therefore 
consider each of these areas as part of the 
primary hazard category in the risk assess-
ment process.