FRA FAQ
Common fire hazards include electrical faults, portable heaters, smoking and arson opportunity as ignition sources, and refuse, storage in escape routes, charging e-bike batteries and combustible linings as fuel. Assessors organise them with the fire triangle: ignition, fuel and oxygen.
Ignition
Electrical hazards lead the list: ageing intake equipment and meter cupboards, overloaded sockets and adaptors, damaged leads, and communal installations that have missed inspection. Portable heaters follow close behind, especially where heating is poor and residents improvise. Smoking remains a steady cause, on balconies and in quiet corners of the common parts. Deliberate ignition is a hazard in its own right: unsecured bin stores, open undercrofts and accumulating mail all hand an arsonist opportunity, which is why assessors check what a stranger could reach and light.
Lithium-ion batteries deserve separate mention because they behave as ignition source and concentrated fuel at once. An e-bike or e-scooter battery in thermal runaway produces a fast, hot and toxic fire that resists ordinary extinguishers, and charging in communal areas puts that possibility directly onto the route residents would escape by. Assessors increasingly record where batteries are charged and stored, what the policy says and whether residents have been told.
Fuel and spread
Fuel hazards in housing are mostly things in the wrong place: refuse and bulky waste against the building, storage in escape routes and stair lobbies, combustible wall and ceiling linings, and external wall systems that support fire spread. Anything kept in a protected stair counts twice, as fuel and as an obstruction to the means of escape, which is why assessors treat it severely however tidy it looks.
Oxygen is everywhere, so the practical concern is the path a fire would take: wedged-open fire doors, breached compartmentation, service holes never fire-stopped, and ventilation routes that move smoke between floors. For each hazard a competent assessor records what it is, where it is, who it endangers, what currently controls it and what should change, normally with a photograph attached. That record becomes a significant finding, and the first remedy considered is always removal or reduction, because prevention is the first principle of fire risk assessment.
FAQ
The physics is identical; the consequences are not. A block stacks many households above shared escape routes, so a hazard in the common parts threatens everyone at once, and anything that undermines compartmentation puts the whole evacuation strategy in doubt. The blocks of flats guide covers the building type in depth.
Yes, twice over: it is fuel, and it obstructs escape and firefighting access. UK housing providers run either zero-tolerance or managed-use policies for communal areas, and the assessment should record what was present on the day and whether the stated policy is enforced in practice.
Report it in writing to whoever manages the building, since the responsible person carries the legal duty to act, and keep a copy with a photograph if you can. If the response is inadequate and the risk is serious, the local fire and rescue authority has powers to inspect and enforce.
FRA Flow pairs every hazard with its photo, location and control notes on site, then drafts the significant findings for a reviewer to sign.
