Fire Safety Checklist for Care Homes

The care home environment presents unique challenges as residents might not have the ability to evacuate safely on their own. By law, all care homes in England are responsible to meet national standards of quality and safety.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 covers general fire precautions and other fire safety duties which are needed to protect relevant persons in case of fire in and around most premises.

Responsibility for complying with the Fire Safety Order rests with the “Responsible Person”. The responsibility to plan and schedule the installation and maintenance of any fire protection equipment lies solely with the “Responsible Person”.

The checklist below covers the most important fire safety measures in care homes.

1. Conduct a Fire Risk Assessment

If you are the “Responsible Person” for your Care Home, you should be fully aware of the need to manage your premises well and to ensure the fire safety and well-being of your residents. Your staff must be trained to prevent or limit the risk of fire, recognise, and neutralise potential fire hazards and know how to respond to an emergency. You should pay attention to those at special risk, such as disabled people, and residents with mobility impairment and learning disabilities.

A Fire Safety Risk Assessment will help you to identify potential risks that can be removed or reduced and will identify any issues that need attention.

A Fire Safety Risk Assessment involves five steps:

• Identify the hazards. You will need to identify the potential ignition sources, sources of fuel and oxygen in your Care Home. This enables you to identify the exact hazards in your care home and determine which are most prominent.
• Identify People at Risk. You must assess the safety of each service user and their ability to evacuate in an emergency. Consider their individual vulnerabilities, such as physical or mental disabilities, vision or hearing problems, and difficulty with awareness and understanding.
• Evaluate, Remove, Reduce and Protect from Fire. You have to evaluate the risks from the identified hazards and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate and what you need. Once you know the exact location of hazards and whom they put at risk then you can decide what safety measures you need. For example, you might identify that some residents cannot evacuate quickly due to low mobility so you will need to assign a designated staff member or appropriate equipment to assist them in an emergency.
• Record your findings. Record the findings and detail the actions taken and inform all employees of these actions.
• Review and revise. Review the Fire Safety Risk Assessment at regular intervals or when a change occurs in the workplace or work activities.

2. Install and Service Fire Detection and Alarms

The main challenge with most Care Homes is the inability of occupants to evacuate quickly. Some of the residents may have vulnerabilities that make it difficult for them to hear the alarm or activate it if they discover a fire.

BS 5839-1:2017 recommends L1 coverage throughout larger Care Homes. Many specifications for smaller homes will also specify L1 after an appropriate Fire Safety Risk Assessment. Also, nursing homes with more than 10 occupants should be protected by Addressable Systems and they should have an automatic connection to the fire brigade.

The principal benefit of an Addressable Fire Alarm System is the ability to identify the source of an alarm at the control panel.

Planned fire alarm maintenance and servicing should be carried out in accordance with BS5839-1: 2017 by competent fire alarm engineers with a minimum frequency of every 6 months.

BS 5839-1:2017 states that all Fire Alarm Systems need to be tested weekly to ensure that there has not been any major failure and that the fire alarm system is in working order. This British Standard requires that a nominated “Responsible Person” for the premises should ensure that a weekly test of the building’s fire alarm system is carried out under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Emergency lighting should also receive periodic tests: a short functional test every month and a test for the full rated duration annually.

3. Install and Service Fire Extinguishers

The “Responsible Person” should ensure that the correct types of Fire Extinguishers are in place and are serviced annually. BS 5839-1:2017 recommends that Fire Extinguishers are tested by discharge every 5 years and refilled or replaced (water, foam, and powder) and CO2 should be replaced every 10 years.

The number of Fire Extinguishers you require depends on many factors which can be identified in your Fire Safety Risk Assessment.

4. Put Fire Evacuation Protocols in Place

Having suitable and sufficient evacuation procedures in your care home is vital as many residents might have difficulties evacuating on their own.  All staff and residents must be aware of the importance of maintaining the safety of the escape routes, e.g., by ensuring that fire doors are not wedged open and that combustible materials are not stored within escape routes.