Whether a businessperson, homeowner or landlord in Scotland, it’s important to know the country’s new fire safety rules.
Every home in Scotland has to have interlinked fire alarms by February 2022. This means that if one alarm in the household goes of, all fitted alarms go off.
The new Scotland-wide guidelines introduced by Holyrood mean that the following to be installed in Scottish homes:
- One smoke alarm - in the living room, or the room used most
- One smoke alarm in every hallway or landing
- One heat alarm in the household’s kitchen.
The new legislation also states that all smoke and heat alarms should be ceiling-mounted.
And for those homes with a carbon-fuelled appliance (such as a boiler, fire, heater or flue) in any room, a carbon monoxide (CO) detector must be fitted in that room, but this doesn’t need to be linked to the fire alarms.
Addressing the occurrence of fire in the home across Scotland in recent years, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s 2020-21 fire statistics report states: ’45.1% of household fires resulted in smoke or heat damage only, and 26.6% were confined to the item first ignited. Meanwhile, 8.4% of dwelling fire incidents involved the fire spreading beyond the initial room, and incidents where dwelling fires had an area of damage greater than five meters squared, accounted for 12.4% of fires in the home.
What’s more, 25% household fires in Scotland in the period 2020-21 took hold when no fire alarm was fitted, perhaps illustrating the need for the introduction of tighter legislation around the installation of fire alarm systems in homes across Scotland.
Lynsey Tinto, GTG health and safety manager talked about the range of health and safety courses offered across the training provider’s three centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh and West Midlands, aimed at improving fire safety knowledge for both fire safety professionals, and those looking to train and learn new skills relevant to the responsibilities of their everyday roles.
‘Fire safety and fire awareness are important parts of the health and safety course provision here at GTG, as one of the six areas of business covered by GTG training. Delivered by expert trainers in the health and safety field, courses range from a half-day fire warden course to help a candidate ensure proper fire safety and fire alarm evacuation at work, to more in-depth fire officer courses requiring both classroom hours and independent study.
‘We also offer fire safety business inspections, ranging from basic checks, via health and safety inspections and audits, through to PAS79-1 2020-compliant Fire Risk Assessments.’
Find a range of health and safety courses online.