Fire Risk Assessments for Healthcare and Care Settings

The issues that come up most

In healthcare and care settings, the assessment cannot assume that occupants will evacuate. Where residents or patients have limited mobility, cognitive impairment or are receiving treatment, the fire strategy typically relies on progressive horizontal evacuation — moving people into an adjoining compartment rather than out of the building. That places the entire weight of the strategy on compartmentation, on fire doors, and on staffing levels at night.

It also raises the bar on detection. We have specified Category L1 systems in vulnerable-occupancy premises where a lesser category would be defensible in a general workplace, and we set out that reasoning in full in the report. Where a professional judgement is a departure from the obvious answer, it should be written down and defended, not quietly applied.