Fire Safety

Fire in a care setting is the nightmare scenario precisely because the usual advice — get out fast — doesn't work when residents can't walk, can't hear alarms, or can't understand what an alarm means. Everything about care fire safety flows from that: buildings compartmented so fire is contained while people are moved horizontally to safety behind fire doors; plans written per person; staff drilled until the response is muscle memory; and prevention taken personally, because prevention is the only strategy that needs no evacuations.

The law names a "responsible person" — usually the provider or manager — who must assess fire risk, act on it, and keep it current as the building and the people change. And the people do change: the new resident who smokes, the gentleman now on thickened emollient creams, the lady whose hearing has faded past the alarm's pitch. A fire risk assessment from two admissions ago is out of date.

For care workers the essentials are blunt: know the evacuation strategy, know each person's PEEP, keep fire doors shut and escape routes clear, take every alarm seriously, and know that on a night shift with two of you and thirty residents, the plan is the difference between a drama and a tragedy.

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005: the responsible person must assess risk, implement precautions (detection, alarms, extinguishers, signage, emergency routes, lighting), plan for emergencies, and train staff. Since the Building Safety Act 2022 changes (October 2023), fire risk assessments must be recorded in full for all premises.
• Fire Safety Act 2021 and Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: clarified and extended duties, mainly for buildings with flats but relevant to some supported living.
• Regulation 12 and 15 (2014 Regulations): safe premises, equipment and care — CQC and fire and rescue services both take an interest, and fire services inspect and enforce in care homes.
• Sleeping-risk guidance: government guidance for premises where people sleep (including care homes) sets the expected standards for evacuation strategies and staffing implications.

Expect scrutiny of: the fire risk assessment (current, actioned), PEEPs for every person (kept where staff will grab them, updated after change), alarm testing weekly and servicing in date, drills including night-scenario staffing, staff who can describe the strategy without hesitation, fire doors closing properly, escape routes clear, oxygen and mobility scooters stored safely, and smoking risk assessments — including the emollient interaction. After national fires, evacuation aids (ski sheets, evacuation chairs) and whether night staff can actually use them get particular attention. A wedge under a fire door is the fastest way to lose an inspector's confidence in the whole building.

• Write PEEPs that are honestly personal: mobility by day and night (people who walk by day may not stand at 3am), hearing, cognition ("will hide from alarms — check wardrobe and under bed"), equipment needed, number of staff, refuge point.
• Drill the real weaknesses: night staffing levels, the resident who refuses to leave, the corridor blocked by a laundry trolley. Debrief and record what you'd change — then change it.
• Weekly alarm tests on a rota that varies the call point; log them. Check emergency lighting and door releases monthly per schedule.
• Manage ignition sources personally: smoking risk assessments with aprons and supervision where needed, emollient-and-smoking combinations escalated, candles and cheap chargers out, portable heaters assessed, PAT testing current.
• Keep compartments intact: doors closed (magnetic hold-opens that release on alarm are the lawful alternative to wedges), gaps and damaged intumescent strips reported, nothing stored in stairwells or against final exits.
• In home care, you're the eyes: overloaded sockets, cigarette burns on bedding, blocked exits, no working smoke alarm — report and refer (fire and rescue services offer free Safe and Well visits).

Example 1. During a 2am drill simulation, a home discovers that the agreed two-staff sub-evacuation of the dementia wing takes eleven minutes — the strategy assumed four staff. The manager doesn't file the result; she changes reality: night staffing is reviewed, evacuation aids are repositioned, two residents' PEEPs are rewritten, and the next drill takes six minutes. That is what drills are for.

Example 2. A home care worker notices her client — a smoker — has started using a paraffin-based emollient several times daily, and his cardigan cuffs are singed. She reports it the same day. The GP practice switches the prescription where clinically possible, the family launder bedding at the right temperature, a fire-retardant apron is provided for smoking, and the fire service does a Safe and Well visit. Singed cuffs are a last warning, and this one was read.