After a fire in a commercial or multi occupied building, more than one investigation starts, and they are asking different questions. The fire and rescue service wants to know how it started and how it spread. The enforcing authority wants to know whether the duties were met. The insurer wants to know whether the policy responds. None of them will wait while a building looks for its paperwork, and what is produced in the first week usually decides how the rest goes.
Who is asking, and what each one wants
The fire and rescue service investigates cause and development, and in a serious fire that work can run for weeks. The enforcing authority under the Fire Safety Order, which for most premises is the same service acting in a different capacity, looks at whether the assessment was suitable and whether the measures were maintained. Where somebody at work was injured or killed, the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority has its own interest. The insurer's investigator arrives separately and answers to the policy.
Preserving the scene, which is not the same as clearing up
The pressure after a fire is to make safe and get trading. The investigation needs the opposite for a while: the origin area left alone, debris not moved, and any equipment suspected of starting it kept rather than skipped. Agree in writing with the investigating officer and the insurer what may be cleared and when. A scene tidied before anybody has seen it turns a question with an answer into a question without one.
What gets asked for first
The fire risk assessment and its date, the log book, the alarm and emergency lighting test records, the fire door checks, the maintenance certificates for each system, the training records, and the names of the people responsible. This is why the management arrangements matter: a building that can produce those in an afternoon is in a different position from one that cannot, whatever actually caused the fire.
Reporting, and what is reportable
A fire is not automatically reportable in itself. What is reportable under RIDDOR is a death or a specified injury to a person at work, an over seven day injury, or a dangerous occurrence, which includes a fire or explosion causing work to be suspended for more than twenty four hours. Reports are made through the HSE's own service, and the record has to be kept separately from the report itself.
Questions people ask about fire investigation UK
Who carries out fire investigations in the UK?
The fire and rescue service investigates cause and spread. The enforcing authority, usually the same service in its regulatory role, looks at whether the Fire Safety Order duties were met. The HSE or local authority may have an interest where somebody at work was hurt, and the insurer investigates separately.
Do I have to keep the scene as it is?
Make it safe, then agree with the investigating officer and the insurer what may be cleared and when. Moving debris from the origin area or skipping suspect equipment before anybody has seen it can end an investigation that would otherwise have reached a conclusion.
Is a fire reportable under RIDDOR?
Not in itself. It becomes reportable as a dangerous occurrence where a fire or explosion suspends normal work for more than twenty four hours, and separately where somebody at work is killed or injured to the stated thresholds.
What is the first document anybody asks for?
The fire risk assessment, with its date and its action list, followed by the log book and the maintenance records. A building that can produce them quickly is answering a narrower set of questions than one that cannot.