The West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service (WSFRS) strategy for Fire Protection is set out in its Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2022-2026. Fire Protection is encapsulated within Strategic Priority 2:
“Protecting people, firefighters and property by making buildings as safe from fire as they can be.”
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that owners, managers, or operators of businesses have a responsibility to make sure that premises reach the required standards and employees are provided with adequate fire safety training.
The Fire Safety Team supports businesses to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and other legislation, so that building owners or managers minimise the risk of fire, understand duties and continue to manage and maintain the arrangements required within the order.
With more than 35,000 non-domestic properties in West Sussex, keeping the county safe is complex. The WSFRS Fire Safety Team supports public safety and business resilience by providing support and advice to premises, such as hospitals, care homes, hotels and other businesses, so that fire safety plans can be effectively managed.
We operate a Risk Based Inspection Programme (see below) to ensure that we focus our activities on those premises which we consider pose the greatest risk to their occupants.
The WSFRS Fire Protection priorities for the financial year 2024-25, are to:
- develop and train our response crews with fire safety and fire investigation qualifications (CRMP Strategic Objective 2.1)
- ensure the knowledge we gain from investigating the cause of fires informs our understanding of risk (CRMP Strategic Objective 2.3)
- ensure that our Fire Investigation Officers have the underpinning training, experience, and knowledge to enable them to identify the risks and causes of fire (CRMP Strategic Objective 2.4)
- work with Asian Fire Service Association, National Fire Chiefs Council and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ensure all of our enforcement activities are proportionate and develop a toolbox for better regulation. (Strategic Objective 2.6)
- seek to develop our Primary Authority Scheme to identify additional partners who share our values and behaviours - particularly those that support vulnerable groups, where we can then support their Fire Safety compliance.
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