Civil Engineering Association

PAS 79 Fire risk assessment – Guidance and a recommended methodology

This Publicly Available Specification has been developed and published by BSI, which retains its ownership and copyright, except for Annexes A and D (see Use of this document). BSI reserves the right to withdraw or amend this PAS on receipt of authoritative advice that it is appropriate to do so. This Publicly Available Specification will be reviewed at intervals not exceeding two years, and any amendments arising from the review will be published as an amendment and publicized in Update Standards. This is a full revision of the document, and introduces the following principal changes.
• All references to legislation have been updated to take account of the repeal of the Fire Precautions Act 1971 [1] and the Workplace Fire Precautions Legislation [2], and to refer to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [3] and to the equivalent legislation in Scotland [4–5] and Northern Ireland [6– 7].
• The technical content has been subject to minor amendment in the light of experience in the use of PAS 79.
• The guidance now recommends more detailed examination and recording of certain fire precautions and fire safety arrangements, in the light of experience and the new fire safety legislation.
• Reference is now made to the requirements of the relevant fire safety legislation in respect of dangerous substances.

PAS 79:2007 Fire risk assessment. Guidance and a recommended methodology

PAS 79:2007 Fire risk assessment. Guidance and a recommended methodology is a comprehensive Publicly Available Specification (PAS) that gives a nine-step structured approach and corresponding documentation for conducting and recording significant findings of fire risk assessments in buildings across three legislative regimes, namely that in England and Wales, that in Scotland and the unchanged legislation in Northern Ireland (which will not change until, at least, later this year).

PAS 79 is non-prescriptive. It does not specify how the fire risk assessors should go about their businesses or even the format of the documented fire risk assessment. Instead, it sets out nine key steps that need to be carried out in assessing the fire risk in any building.

The nine steps include obtaining the relevant information, identifying the hazards, considering the appropriate control measures, reviewing the fire protection measures, assessing fire safety management and much more.

The nine steps in PAS 79 may help to:

Provide organizations and their advisers with a suggested methodology for meeting their legislative responsibilities to undertake the fire risk assessments
Promote better understanding of the fire risks and fire safety
Encourage the adoption of a common understanding, a common language and a common system for carrying out fire risk assessments
Provide an understanding of the principles and scope of fire risk assessments
Establish a common basis for documentation of fire risk assessments
Benchmark for the suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment required by legislation, enabling the assessor to adopt their own individual approach and format their own documentation according to their business practices

What’s new in PAS 79:2007?

This is a full revision of the document, and introduces the following principal changes.

All references to legislation have been updated to take account of the repeal of the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Workplace Fire Precautions Legislation, and to refer to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and to the equivalent legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The technical content has been subject to minor amendment in the light of experience in the use of PAS 79.
The guidance now recommends more detailed examination and recording of certain fire precautions and fire safety arrangements, in the light of experience and the new fire safety legislation.
Reference is now made to the requirements of the relevant fire safety legislation in respect of dangerous substances.

PAS 79:2007 supersedes PAS 79, which is withdrawn.
Contents of PAS 79:2007

Foreword
Introduction
1 Scope
2 Normative references
3 Terms and definitions
4 The concepts of fire risk and fire hazard
5 Principles and scope of fire risk assessments
6 Responsibility for adequacy of the fire risk assessment
7 Competence of fire risk assessors
8 Benchmark standards for assessment of fire precautions
9 Documentation of fire risk assessments
10 Nine steps to fire risk assessment
11 Relevance of information about the building, the occupants and the processes
12 Identification of fire hazards and means for their elimination or control
13 Assessment of the likelihood of fire
14 Assessment of fire protection measures
15 Assessment of fire safety management
16 Assessment of likely consequences of fire
17 Assessment of fire risk
18 Formulation of an action plan
19 Periodic review of fire risk assessments
Annex A (informative) Model pro-forma for documentation of the fire risk assessment
Annex B (informative) Fire hazard prompt-list
Annex C (normative) Key factors to consider in assessment of means of escape
Annex D (informative) Model pro-forma for documentation of a review of an existing fire risk assessment
Bibliography

Figure 1 – Schematic of fire risk assessment process
Figure 2 – Schematic example of appropriate education, training and experience of fire risk assessors
Figure 3 – Example of timeline comparison between ASET and escape time

Table 1 – A simple risk level estimator
Table B.1 – Fire hazards, elimination or control measures and relevant codes of
practice
Table C.1 – Key factors and specific issues to consider in means of escape