Fire


The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) described the Grenfell Tower fire as the deadliest since the blitz. In the early hours of 14 June 2017, a simple fault on a fridge freezer in a fourth-floor flat sparked the fire that rapidly spread throughout the 24-storey residential block and killed 72 people. The fire has put the fire safety regulatory system under the spotlight. 


As well as an ongoing public inquiry, which is expected to make recommendations following its first phase by the end of the year, and a criminal investigation led by the Metropolitan Police, the government commissioned Dame Judith Hackitt to carry out a review of building regulations and fire safety. 


There are two sets of regulations containing fire safety requirements. The Building Regulations 2010 (Part B) are concerned with the design and construction of buildings and are examined in Chapter 2 (see also pages 27-29), while the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 contains requirements to safely manage buildings that are already in use. 


Hackitt published her final report, Building a safer future: independent review of building regulations and fire safety, in May 2018 and called for a “radical rethink of the whole system”, with 50 recommendations for government. However, the architects’ body RIBA commented: “Whilst there are elements of Dame Judith Hackitt’s review that we very much welcome, we are extremely concerned that it has failed to act on the urgent need to immediately protect life safety through a more detailed programme of simplified and improved regulations, standards and guidance”. 


As this booklet went to press, the government was due to publish a consultation on clarifying Building Regulations fire safety guidance and said it would give a more detailed statement in the autumn on how it intends to implement the new regulatory system. 


The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies risk assessment principles and establishes a single fire safety regime for all workplaces and other non-domestic premises. It applies to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have devolved responsibility for fire safety law. The Order divides into Articles, rather than regulations, but the basic hierarchy is similar to other health and safety law.



The Order applies to most “non-domestic premises”. Workplaces not covered are offshore installations, ships, fields, woods or other land in agriculture away from buildings, aircraft, locomotive or rolling stock, mines and boreholes. Responsibility for complying with the Order rests with the “responsible person”, defined in Article 3. In a workplace, this is the employer and any other person who may have control of any part of the premises, for example, the occupier or owner. In all other premises, the people in control of the premises will be responsible. If there is more than one responsible person in any type of premises, all must take all reasonable steps to work with each other.