Fire Safety
- Introduction
- One-off Event Hire, and Non-Hire Groups
- Hire and Non-Hire Groups with Recurring Events
- How you will be Spot-Checked
- Fire Marshal Induction Cards
Introduction
In 2005, the law changed regarding fire safety for all non-domestic premises, including places of worship. This change came into effect in October 2006. We take our compliance seriously as a church, and we now advise you as to your responsibilities under these changes.
Both groups of building users who report to our church meeting ('groups inside the church', or 'non-hire groups'), as well as groups from outside St Columba's church ('hire groups'), are responsible for appointing their own trained Fire Marshals to act as the Responsible Person(s) for Fire Safety, and for carrying out their own Fire Risk Assessments specifically for their own events. This is true for recurring events, and it is also true for one-off events.
It is the church's responsibility to make building-specific Fire, Health and Safety Inductions available to Fire Marshals and carry out its own Fire Risk Assessment(s) for the building, but it is your responsibility to:
- have at least one trained Fire Marshal in place for your own activity (it's up to you to decide how many you need), and
- conduct your own Fire Risk Assessment(s) for your event(s).
We also request that you report any significant general findings back to us if they may affect other users of the building.
In Oxford, Fire Marshal training is available through the County Council and/or Slade Fire Station in Headington.
The church also has a duty to spot-check that you are maintaining your two responsibilities here, and we will do so. This is now the case legally for all buildings you are likely to hire, irrespective of whether they are stated by the building owner or not.
(To clarify, you are responsible as contractee for the general and fire safety of those attending your event(s), wherever they are in the building. Coordination with Fire Marshals of other activities in other parts of the building is expected. As stated in our induction material (available below), you are expected to 'sweep' all rooms if it is safe to do so during the evacuation procedure; not just the room(s) your group or event(s) have formally hired. See the induction material below for more details.)
The documents which form the backbone of the inductions are:
- signage and equipment in the building itself, and
- the Fire Marshal induction cards, which can be downloaded below. (These are also handed out at inductions.)
Please make sure you familiarise yourself with these documents now.
One-off Event Hire and Non-Hire Groups
The main check we will make is to ensure that you (or whoever is the nominated Responsible Person for your event) have been given a Fire, Health and Safety Induction to the building between confirmation of your booking and the date of your event. If you are being lent a key with your hire, you will be given the key at the same meeting.
If you are arranging the event and collecting the key, but you wish to nominate someone else as the Fire Marshal, you will need to receive the Induction/training as normal, and then pass this information on to the nominated person once they have been elected. (It's okay to have more than one nominee!)
Hire and Non-Hire Groups with Recurring Events
Fire Marshals of recurring event (hire and non-hire) groups must please report for inductions at least once per year. The induction runs at 10am on the first Thursday in June and December every year. The induction is normally conducted by the Buildings Administrator, who is also the church's Fire Officer. You will be notified before the event to confirm that it is going ahead. The induction covers:
- What action to take (emergency procedures)
- The escape plan
- Your legal duties
- Our legal duties to you as a building user
- Questions you may want to ask yourself
How you will be Spot-Checked
A register will be kept of who has acknowledged receipt of the induction material (below), who has attended Fire, Health and Safety inductions, and when that last was, and who has reported findings back to us from their own fire risk assessments. Failure to attend inductions at least once per year will result in an issued warning. In extreme cases of negligence, hire agreements will be terminated.
Fire Marshal Induction Cards
These training documents (919 Kb PDF), together with signage and equipment in the building itself, are the main instrument of your Fire, Health and Safety Induction. Please make sure you familiarise yourself with them now. First published March 2008. Latest version published: August 2008. [Revisions are dated in square parenthesis and blue ink.].
*The Owner/Managers for Fire Safety under the Fire Safety Order, 2005, for St Columba's Church as a whole are the Elders of St Columba's URC, Oxford. They delegate everyday practicalities to the Buildings Administrator as the Fire Officer who has delegated authority. The named Fire Officer (/competent person) may change without prior notice.
For Elders and Administrator Only:
This content has moved to the new fire downloads section of the website.
