Need help? Call 0345 838 4074 Register Login

Step 2: Identify people at risk

Identify people at risk

To identify those at risk in case of a fire, you must look at where your employees are working. Also, consider who else may be at risk, e.g. customers and visitors, and where they're likely to be found.

You must consider those who may be especially at risk, such as:

  • Staff who work alone and/or in isolated areas, e.g. cleaners and security staff
  • Anyone with disabilities, particularly if they have slow mobility (e.g. elderly customers)
  • Anyone with language difficulties
  • Anyone who is unfamiliar with the premises (such as new staff, contractors, agency employees and customers)
  • Anyone in the premises' immediate surrounding area

In larger buildings used extensively by the public, you may need to get professional advice.

People with special needs

You must pay particular attention to employees who have special needs, such as those with a disability. During your assessment, you may want to discuss their individual needs with them.

Disabled people may react differently to a fire warning, especially if they have mobility issues. Therefore, you must also provide a safe means for them to exit if there is a fire. You must make other reasonable adjustments to ensure that they're not put at a disadvantage when compared to employees without disabilities.

Similarly, you should also consider others with special needs, such as young children and the elderly.

Related services

What is the law guide

The Desktop Lawyer law guide aims to present the law to you in a comprehensive yet jargon-free and easy-to-read format. Our law guide is constantly kept up to date with changes in business and family law by our team of in house solicitors, and includes information across all the legal jurisdictions in the UK.

Our law guide is free to use. Where we provide documents related to this area of law, or where they may help you with any legal issue in this area, they will be listed to the right of this message.

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.