Fire in buildings

There are two sets of regulations containing fire safety requirements in workplaces: the Building Regulations 2010 (Part B) are concerned with the design and construction of buildings and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 contains requirements to safely manage buildings that are already in use.

The entire fire safety regulatory system has been under scrutiny following the Grenfell Tower fire of 14 June 2017, described by the FBU fire brigades’ union as the deadliest since the blitz. It was sparked in the early hours by a simple fault on a fridge freezer in a fourth-floor flat. The fire rapidly spread throughout the 24-storey residential block, killing 72 people. The Metropolitan Police is leading a criminal investigation into the fire (see Chapter 3).

The Fire Safety Act 2021 made changes to the application of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises (see page 180 below). The Building Safety Bill, introduced into the House of Commons in July 2021, formally named the HSE as the new independent Building Safety Regulator and will implement the recommendations set out in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future report, commissioned in the wake of Grenfell (see page 178 below).