Thirty-six percent of small UK businesses are unaware of their legal obligations to organise a workplace fire risk assessment. The result is that businesses suffer 2m fire-related losses each day, according to research by Continental Research and sponsored by BT RedCARE, an alarm signaling service. Although 64% of the companies participating in the survey were aware of their risk assessment responsibilities, 30% admitted they do not carry them out. The most aware groups, which met safety requirements, were wholesale and property companies. Federation of Small Businesses Health Safety & Risk Management said that companies are often unable to recover sufficiently after a fire to resume operating out of the same premises. Especially for small businesses, this can lead to serious loss of revenue and even closure.
Based on a report from i-FM newsletter