Statistically you are unlikely to be caught in a fire in your office, the people are awake (unless they are reading this post) and alert, other people in the building are generally aware of the fire safety requirements of the office environment. This new standard has been brought out by the British Standard’s Institute and replaces the BS5588 series of standards, parts of which had already been superseded by the BS5839 Part 8 (Voice Alarm Systems)

For the fire industry BS9999 provides a useful guidance to the process of fire risk assessments from various stages of the buildings existence, from new to refurbished.

The BSI website describes the standard as 10 years in the making and at 459 pages it could take almost as long to read.

BS 9999 -2008 gives recommendations and guidance on the design, management and use of buildings to achieve acceptable levels of fire safety for all people in and around buildings.

Summary

BS 9999-2008 is applicable to the design of new buildings, and to alterations, extensions and changes of use of an existing building, with the exception of individual homes and with limited applicability in the case of certain specialist buildings. It also provides guidance on the ongoing management of fire safety in a building throughout the entire life cycle of the building, including guidance for designers to ensure that the overall design of a building assists and enhances the management of fire safety. It can be used as a tool for assessing existing buildings, although fundamental change in line with the guidelines might well be limited or not practicable.

Our recommendation

We recommend that you carry out a fire risk assessment, and ensure that you understand the results and recommendations, from this you should agree the actions that you need to take to ensure that you have taken account of the well being of the building users including employees and visitors.

Once this has been completed to the responsible persons satisfaction then you should control and regularly audit your proceedures and prevention measures.

If in doubt please call us and we will provide further recommendations.